


Powers

by orphan_account



Series: powers verse [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I think I finally fixed burr and theos relationship tag, Multi, Texting, all the others are in college, also sorry if the little ~romance~ in here is absolute crap, angelica has time powers, but only a lil bit, i kind of forgot about it and also i dont know how to, john texts like peggy, peggy is still in highschool, powers au, that took forever, the george/martha is there because they're married but like it's not important, who is in highschool, whoops, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-10-05 21:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 37,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10317086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In this world, almost everyone has powers.  Which means that every one of the main characters in this story (The sisters, the revolutionary group, maria, theodosia) all have powers. Almost.With powers, however, comes people doing bad things with the powers.[I update on either Friday or Saturday!][EDIT: I made the description a little less trash.][And it is finished!]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I haven't done ~this~ whole fanfic writing thing in a while, so please tell me what you think!
> 
> also my description is trash lol

Most everyone has a power. So many people have powers, actually, that it was more common to have on then not. Still, people without powers are considered to be unlucky.

Angelica was lucky. She had time powers. She could pause time and rewind time. Whenever she set time to play again, she was in the place she was before she paused it. Angelica wasn’t able to change anything in the past, however, or even the present, when time was paused. She couldn’t even really interact with things, even if she could see them. When she was in a different time, she was weightless and could float through objects and people. Angelica liked to leave her body to explore time.

Eliza was also lucky. No one was quite sure what Eliza’s powers were, but they were useful. She could calm things, like people or animals. She had a way with sunlight, so she could make places brighter. She always seemed to walk lightly. Eliza could also make things agitated, and bend sunlight so places were dark. But she had never used those powers.

And Peggy? Well, they didn’t quite know if she had powers, but they were pretty sure she did. Powers weren’t always revealed early on, and she was still in high school.

 

Angelica was driving, with Eliza in the passenger's seat. They had been talking about their successful shopping trip, and the books they had bought, when Angelica’s phone pinged.

“‘Liza, can you check that?”

“Sure.” Eliza picked up Angelica’s phone, looked at the text, and sighed.

“Jefferson?”

“Jefferson.” Eliza confirmed.

“What’s he complaining about now?”

“It’s that debate kid again. Thomas is saying that the guy beat him again. Oh! Hey, Thomas is hosting a party this Friday. He wants to know if we’re going to come.”

Angelica smiled. “Tell him that we’ll come if he invites that debate kid. I want to meet him. What was his name?”

Eliza was already texting Angelica’s response. “No idea. Thomas always calls him ‘that debate kid’.”

“Strange that we haven’t heard about him already. Like, his name, and like, what he does.”

“Well, maybe we can fix that.”

“Maybe we can.”

 

The party was loud, and Angelica sighed. She wanted to find that debate kid already when--

“Hey!” Someone had run into her.

The boy looked at her.

“Hi,” He said. And that was enough. She was hooked on the feeling of looking into his eyes, she was just speechless. “You don’t look like someone who comes here often.”

“What? Are you serious?” The initial feeling of seeing this boy and talking to him faded a little.

“Uh! Nah, you’re like me, if that’s true. I don’t go to parties like these,” he gestured to the room, “often. I’m more of a stay in and read and write kind of guy, you know?”

“Same. My name is Angelica Schuyler. Yours?”

“Alexander Hamilton.” He said with a smile. That feeling came back in full force.

“Where are you from?”

He looked away, “Doesn’t matter,” He looked back at Angelica and she found herself staring into his eyes. “Only thing that matters is I’m here, you know? And what I can do while I’m here! I’m going to-”

Angelica leaves her body (and pauses time) in the middle of Alexander’s sentence, just to process everything. Everyone around her froze. Angelica looked around, turning an almost full circle before she saw the other boy. He was covered in freckles, and his brown hair was tied at the top of his head. He was also staring right at Alexander, and there’s something in his expression that she can’t quite place. It takes a minute, but then she realizes. It’s a crush. The mystery boy is staring at Alexander with a kind of helpless expression. She wonders why he looks so helpless, but then it hits her. She was flirting with Alexander, and all he could do was watch. She sighed. She was going to introduce them. She returned to her body.

“-make a difference!”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Would you mind waiting here? I have to check on something, but I’ll be right back.”

“Sure, of course. I’ll be here.”

 

Angelica turned and walked to the staring boy.

“Hey. I’m Angelica Schuyler.”

“Uh, I’m John Laurens.” He looked away.

“You want to get with Alexander?”

“What?”

“I can see it on your face. Do you know him?”

“Not yet, no.”

Angelica smiled at John. “Well, pretty soon you will. Come with me.”

Angelica took John’s arm and lead him back to Alexander.

“You’re back!” He said. “Who’s this?” Alexander smiled at John. Flirtatiously? Maybe.

“I’m about to change your life!” Angelica promised. “This is my friend, John Laurens.”

“Hey. Nice to meet you.” John and Alexander shook hands.

“How long have you two known each other?” Alexander asks.

“Spontaneous friendships,” Angelica says, waving off the question.

“I’ve heard that you’re in debate club? It’s nice to know someone is beating down Jefferson’s ego on a regular basis.” John says to Alexander. This must be the debate kid that Jefferson is always talking about!

“Hah! Yes! I knew there would be someone that doesn’t side with Jefferson.” Alexander replies. Yes, Angelica thinks, his smile is definitely flirtatious.

“I’m going to go talk to my sister now, but can I have your numbers?”

“Of course!”

“Sure!”

The two boys enter their numbers into Angelica’s phone.

“Great. I’ll leave you to it!”

Angelica walked away to find her sister, something unresolved burning in her. She wants Alexander and John to have a happy ending, because if they don’t, then Angelica will have given him up for nothing. She lays down in her bed that night, and curls up, wanting to rewind but not quite ready. But yet--

She has to know what happened after she left. Angelica sighs and leaves her body, rewinding.

Angelica makes her way to the place and time of the party. She sees herself and Eliza enter the room. Angelica remembers clearly how hot it was inside the party. Past Angelica and Eliza had already attracted the attention of some of the boys inside, who Past Angelica waved off with a smile and a laugh. But Angelica’s goal for rewinding wasn’t watching Past her, it was finding and following John Laurens.

“There!” She says to herself as she catches a glimpse of John. She turns and floats towards him. He’s laughing and talking, a glass in his hand. Angelica hadn’t seen the boy he had been talking to while she had been at the party. The man John was talking to had dark skin, and brown hair in a bun at the top of his head. He had a beard, as well. Angelica was wondering how old he was while the two talked. They two talked for a while before the other man pulled out his phone and swore.

_“I’m sorry, John, but I have to go. I told myself before I went to this party that I’d leave after an hour to go write this essay. I really have to be going.”_

_“No, it’s fine, Laf. Have fun, I guess.”_

_“You to. I’ll see you tomorrow. Drink safely!”_

“Bye!” John waved goodbye as the other man left. John turned around, maybe about to leave himself. Angelica can see the exact moment that he sees Alexander. John doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t move either. Angelica moves to see John, and she looks into his eyes. And he’s just helpless. John stood there, frozen, before Past Angelica excuses herself from Alexander and makes her way over to John.

_“Hey. I’m Angelica Schuyler.”_

_“Uh, I’m John Laurens.”_

_“You want to get with Alexander?”_

_“What?”_

_“I can see it on your face. Do you know him?”_

_“Not yet, no.”_

_“Well, pretty soon you will. Come with me.”_

And Past Angelica had pulled John of towards Alexander. Angelica sighs, staring at Past her. She wonders if she hadn’t turned, if she would have seen John. And if she hadn’t seen John, would she have flirted with Alexander? Would she have taken his number in an entirely different, un-platonic way?

_“You’re back! Who’s this?”_

_“I’m about to change your life! This is my friend, John Laurens.”_

_“Hey. Nice to meet you.”_

_“How long have you two known each other?”_

_“Spontaneous friendships.”_

Angelica had heard people gossiping about her in the past. Of course, people with powers were gossiped about. But it wasn’t just that. Sure, her powers were interesting, but they weren’t visible. Angelica had heard people gossiping about her money and status. Someone had said that if you dated a Schuyler, you were rich. Ugh.

_“I’ve heard that you’re in debate club? It’s nice to know someone is beating down Jefferson’s ego on a regular basis.”_

_“Hah! Yes! I knew there would be someone that doesn’t side with Jefferson.”_

Angelica knows she’s a good judge of character. She knew when she saw John, she saw some of the same things she sees in Eliza. He seems trusting, and kind. And if Angelica had introduced them, but had pulled John off to the side, and had told him her feelings for Alexander? He probably would have let Angelica and Alexander become the power couple on campus while crying, alone.

Angelica shakes her head, walking off before Past Angelica does. She returns to her body, sitting on her bed. She turns to lie down, when her phone pings from on her bedside table. Angelica reaches over to grab her phone.

JOHN-

thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!  
i got alex’s number yesss!!!!!  
his dorm room is next door to mine how have i not known this??  
i think him and me are friends now!! :D  
are we friends too? like i know u said we were but like are we?  
sorry i know it’s late

 

Angelica bit her lip before beginning to text back.  
*Nice! get it john!  
*Yes I think we’re friends  
*Unless you don’t think we’re friends?

 

John texted back quickly.

-yeah i thought we were but i just wanted to check  
-anyway  
-it’s late and i should be sleeping but do you want to do something tomorrow?

*I could go for coffee  
*hell  
*I can always go for coffee who am I kidding

-great!  
-does 3 work?

*It does  
*Have you been to Revolutionary Cafe?

-yeah  
-it’s my fav  
-wanna meet there?

*Sure  
*See you at 3 then

-see u at 3!

 

Angelica turned off her phone and put it back on her bedside table. Leaning forward, she put her head in her hands. John seemed really nice, and he kept reminding her of her sisters. Not Eliza, this time, but Peggy. From the way he texted to the way he sounded like when he texted, it just screamed Peggy. Angelica didn’t want him to get hurt. She also didn’t want this romance to consume her life.

Sighing, Angelica lay back down. She fell asleep quickly, which was surprising for her and for how much had happened that day. But she was thankful for it. Sleep meant not having to think or act for a couple hours.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Maria! And Aaron Burr! And Theodosia! And Peggy, kind of. Not in real life, but she's there!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol an update today??? what??? so soon after yesterday?? Is this going to be my update schedule? 
> 
> NOPE!
> 
> I have a little bit of chapter four done, and I'll work more over the weekend, but eventually I'll run out, so they won't come as fast. But I want you guys to read it :) so I'm going to post pretty regularly until I run out.

Eliza didn’t want to say it out loud, because if she said it out loud then she’d sound like a child. But she was boooooored. Angelica had gone off to talk with someone she’d met at the party the night before. Eliza had listened to Angelica’s story, of course. She was disappointed she didn’t get to see Alexander at the party. But as she thought about it, Eliza was also a little relieved. What if she fell for him? She didn’t want to fall for someone who was so easily making others fall for them! 

“Maybe he’s powered. Maybe he has seduction powers.” Eliza wondered out loud, then she sighed. If she was talking to herself then maybe she should go outside, meet some people. Eliza stood and grabbed her purse, throwing her phone in it. She was dressed already, so all she had to do was go over to the mirror hanging on her door to make sure her outfit was good for the weather. It would be fine, she decided. It was a little windy outside, so her long-sleeve blue dress would be perfect. 

Eliza left her apartment with a smile. As she walked down the busy streets looking for something interesting to do, people brightened and relaxed. Eliza laughed a little, before trying to tone down how much power she was radiating. She was so busy doing that that she didn’t notice the person in front of her stop walking. Eliza walked into the woman, and they both toppled over.   
“Oh! I’m sorry I didn’t--” Eliza began but cut herself off when the woman turned and faced her. “Oh.” 

The woman she had run into was wearing a red, knee length dress. She wore a deep brown jacket over it. And she was just gorgeous! Her red lipstick was perfect! Her curly brown hair flowed beautifully! Everything about the other woman was amazing!

“Oh, it’s okay.” The woman said. She put out a hand for Eliza and Eliza took it. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Me? I-I’m fine. What’s your name?”

The woman sighed regretfully. “Maria Lewis. I can’t believe this keeps happening.”

“What keeps happening?” Eliza asked, distracted by Maria’s hair again.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. What’s your name?”

“Eliza Schuyler.”

“Nice to meet you, Eliza. I have to be going.” And Maria walked away. Eliza stood frozen for a minute before she ran, collapsing into a bench in the middle of some park. She smiled and giggled and pulled out her phone. She had to tell someone about this! 

Eliza started to text Angelica before she realized that Angelica would be busy. She pulled up Peggy’s number instead.

PEGGY-

*PEGGY PEGGY LISTEN UP

-what  
-i was doing homework

*Wait really??  
*Sorry

-jk lol whats up sis

*I MET THE MOST AMAZING GIRL

-really??  
-how??

*I RAN INTO HER  
*I WAS WALKING AND JUST BAM OOOPS SORRY

-wow ok  
-whats her name

*MARIAH  
*OR MARIA  
*IDK BUT IT WAS PRONOUNCED LIKE MARIAH

-cool  
-did u get her number?????

*no

-guess u’ll never c her again then

*AHHHHH NOT HELPING

 

-sorry  
-actually im not

*...

-lol okay but maybe u’ll c her again!!

*I HOPE SO! 

\- i have 2 go  
-b carefull u crazy kid

*I’m older than you

-and i stand by what i said  
-gl tho  
-bye 

*Bye!

Eliza sighed. Peggy wasn’t very helpful at all! She sighed. Then she stood up. She wasn’t going to let some girl (some very very very very pretty girl) ruin her day! Well, not ruin it, but still. Eliza was going to do something. She walked, unable to keep from letting her mind wander. She wasn’t sure when her mind went back to Maria. Maybe it was right away, maybe it was a few minutes. It wasn’t until she got to the crosswalk of a busy street that she started really thinking about her though. The light wasn’t in her favor, and normally Eliza would be waiting patiently, but there! A flash of red and brown across the street! Maria!

 

Maria would be so impressed if she walked across the street against the light! She would realize that Eliza was adventurous and interesting and then Maria would love her! Eliza jumped off the curb.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Someone shouted. Eliza ignored them. Then someone grabbed her and started pulling her back. Eliza screeched and struggled against them, but they were stronger then her. They set her back down on the sidewalk.

“What the hell?” Eliza asked angrily. “She was going to see how great I am! You ruined it!”  
The man who had pulled her back looked to a woman at his side. They both had dark skin, about the same shade as Angelica’s. The woman had long, dark dreadlocks. 

“Lovesick,” she muttered. “I can help.” She stared at Eliza for a moment, then nodded. “Sun. Calm. Your walls aren’t strong enough.” Then she began to pull Eliza. 

“Hey!” Eliza struggled against her, but the woman seemed to be strong. The man followed behind them.

“Here,” the woman announced. “This place works.” They stopped in front of a coffee shop. Ah! Eliza recognized it! It was Revolutionary Cafe, the place she and Angelica would get coffee in practically everyday. Angelica was already inside, talking with the person she had met at the party. 

The woman pulled her across the room and pushed her into a booth. The man sat down next to Eliza. The woman sat across from her. On the other side of the room, Angelica was standing up. The man (John Laurence? Eliza didn’t quite remember. But it didn’t matter, the only name that really mattered was Maria Lewis.)

“Eliza? I thought you’d be staying home.” Angelica was confused.

“Burr?” John asked.

The woman looked up from the booth and nodded at Angelica and John. “Eliza here almost died.”

“No I didn’t!” Eliza protested. “I would have been fine and then Maria would have loved me!”  
“What?”

“She walked into traffic,” the woman continued. “Love sick, from what I can tell. Ran into a seduction, I think. But I can help. It’s kind of my job, after all.”

“Oh.” Angelica said, processing what the woman had said. “When was this? And where?”

The woman told Angelica roughly what the time had been and where. Angelica stood there for a moment, then gasped.

“Oh my god, Eliza! Thank you so much for saving her, I don’t know what I would have done without Eliza.”

“It’s nothing.”

“What was your names again?”

The man spoke up for the first time. “I”m Aaron Burr.”

“And I’m Theodosia. But call me Theo.”

“It’s nice to meet you, but what’s going on?” John asked. 

“Eliza ran into a woman who must have been unintentionally casting her powers out. We’ve met Maria before, I diagnosed her, told her what her power was. Told her that she was a very dangerous women, and that’d we’d be keeping an eye on her. Ugh, this makes my job so much harder. From what we could tell, Maria was doing fine, not casting out at all.”

“Casting out?”

“Her powers,” Aaron took over from Theo. “She’s got a power that allows her to easily persuade through seduction. She came to us because she was confused about all the people who had been doing crazy things for her, even when she didn’t ask. She knew about the whole ‘persuade through seduction’ thing, but the thing with people doing random things for her was new. Theo realized that she was unintentionally casting out all the time, which was making her tired and stressed. It was also making it so that anyone she talked to would be smitten.”

“Oh.” The explanation, and being near Aaron, for some reason, was making Eliza want to find Maria less.

“Is Eliza going to be like.. That, forever?”

“Oh, no. Aaron's been casting against it. His powers allow him to sort of neutralize other active powers. Which,” Theo continued, “makes me surprised at how you were able to rewind, Angelica.”

“You what?” John asked.

“It’s a thing I can do. I can pause and rewind time. But that’s not important. How did you know I was doing that?”

“It was obvious to me, I don’t know.” Theo shrugs. “It’s just my power. What time is it?”

John looked at his watch. “4:15. Why?”

“We’ve got to be going. Hey, Angelica, I’d like to talk to you later. Here--” Theo gave Angelica a business card. “That’s my card. Eliza, you should be good by now, but you guys should watch her. Any quick questions before we go?”

Angelica looked at the card. “If I meet up with you guys, can me and Eliza bring our younger sister? We’ve all been wanting know if she has powers, and what they are.”

“Of course. Now, we really must be going.”

“Bye.” Angelica said. Eliza just waved.

“See you around, Burr.” John nodded. “Nice to meet you, Theo.”

“You too.” And with that, they left.

Angelica gently pulled Eliza with her and John, back to their booth.

“So,” she said, clapping her hands. “Us three have a lot to talk about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Texts between characters, and one phone call!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've kind of wanted to do a texting fic (ignore the other one), but not an entire story. So sometimes, there's gonna be a chapter that's mostly texts. In other news, I'll probably update next on sunday??? I have another chapter, but I want to always have one in reserve. I really like this fic, and want to finish this one!

ALEX-

-how was your coffee w/ angelica?

*interesting  
*we talked and stuff  
*and we kind of ran into eliza (angelicas sister) burr and theodosia  
*which was interesting

-in what world is burr interesting

*this world apparently  
*turns out on the side of his college work  
*he n theo are like power people… police?? Idk  
*they ~~~~~investigate~~~~~~ stuff  
*burrs power basically cancels out most other powers  
*n idk what theos is but she can ~~~~~detect~~~~~ powers kinda

-cool!!!  
-how did you guys run into them tho  
-weren’t you guys just chillin and having coffee?

*ye  
*theo n burr walked into rev. cafe pulling eliza in with them  
*and angelica was like WHOOA WTF THATSS MY SIS 

-why was eliza there tho????

*she almost got hit by a car!  
*she got ~~~~seduced~~~~ i guess by someone name maria lewis???  
*who didnt rly mean to seduce her but they ran into each other  
*and then to impress her (even tho maria wasnt there) eliza almost jumped into traffic 

-woahhh  
-ive met maria before

*really???? When????

-when i first came to america after i got off the plane while i was waiting for foster family #1  
-this woman in red comes up to me and at first im like damn i really am bi she is hot  
-and then she was like ‘please, do you have any spare change or cash? I haven't eaten since yesterday and i'm really hungry’  
-and i’m like okay  
-and i almost give her all of my money  
-which was like 30$ but sTILL

*did u give her the money??

-almost  
-from what i remember i was like ‘wait are you seducing me?’  
-and she was… suspiciously quiet  
-so i punched her in the face and ran away

*nice!  
*wait what  
*you punched someone in the face for being suspiciously quiet????  
*after you asked them if they were seducing you???

-yes

*wow alex  
*real smooth

-that’s what I am  
-real smooth  
-;))))

 

PEGGY-

-HIGHSCHOOL SUCKS ASS  
-angie???????  
-where r uuuuuuu  
-i want 2 complain

*I’m here!

-freakin finally

*Guess who almost got hit by a car today!

-what

*Eliza!!

 

-WHAT

*Eliza got affected by this person who accidentally seduced her or something  
*So to ‘impress’ her or something  
*Eliza almost jumped into traffic

-or something

*Don’t mock me

-or something

*DO I NEED TO PULL UP YOUR ~ANGSTY EDGY~ DAYS I HAVE RECEIPTS

-or something  
-WAIT  
-ANGIE

 

THEO-

*If Hamilton doesn’t stop talking soon I swear to god

-awww i ship it

*THEO  
*YOU’RE LITERALLY MY GIRLFRIEND

-awww thanks  
-.....  
-anyway  
-i’ve got angelica scheduled to talk to me tomorrow  
-she’s bringing peggy, her lil sister

*Good to know  
*Should I clear my schedule?

-the only thing on it is complaining about alexander  
-so yes  
-clear your schedule

*....  
*When are we meeting with them?

-ignoring my sick burn, i see  
-i know your game  
-we’re meeting at 1 at applebee's

*Why applebee’s?

-idk  
-peg’s only a lil highschooler so i don’t want to scare her with the office

*Our office is tiny  
*How could she be scared by it

-okay fine you’ve got me  
-i want to go to applebee’s  
-pick me up at like 12:45??

*Of course  
*See you then!

-see you then!  
-love you

*Love you too

 

JOHN

-angelicaaaaaa

*What

-aLeXaNdEr iS BiSeXuAl!!!!

*Nice.

-i stand a chance!!!  
-also  
-did u know he punched maria in the face when he first came to america

*What  
*Really?

-sit down child ive got a wild story to tell

 

ALEX-

*That was not a wild story john  
*Oh sorry! Wrong number  
*Did you really punch Maria in the face though??

-yes  
-and i dont regret it 

 

PEGGY-

*Get ready, Peg! We’re going to Applebee’s tomorrow! We’ll pick you up around 12:30 so be ready!

-yeeeeeeeeesss  
-wait why?

*We’re going to meet with Theo and Aaron  
*Theo can see if you have powers!  
*And we’re going to talk about the Maria thing  
*Did Angelica tell you about it?

-yes  
-did angelica pull up my edgy days

*No  
*Did she say she would?

-maybe  
-anywayz  
-i gtg

*Don’t do drugs!

-wow  
-oh ye of little faith  
-i would neVER do drugs  
-they change ur brain n shit  
-and i dont want anything touching this perfect brain

*Alright  
*Didn’t you have to go?

-i do  
-bye loser

*Have fun asking dad to pay for your lunch tomorrow!

 

-wait what  
-LIZAAAAAAAAAAAA

*...

-fine  
-I am very sorry for what I have done to hurt you. I did not mean what I said or did. People often look back on things they have done and regret them, and I know that if I did not apologise to you now, I would regret it for the rest of my life. I sincerely apologize.

*That’d be a bit more believable if I knew you didn’t copy paste that but whatever  
*Yes, Angie and I are paying for you

-THX  
-BYE FOR REALZ THIS TIME

 

*Bye!

 

LAF- 

*hey  
*if someone replies to a text with a very chilly seeming ‘Nice’ did i piss them off

-It depends  
-Did you piss them off?

 

*maybe  
*idk

-Show me

*okay  
[-aLeXaNdEr iS BiSeXuAl!!!!]

[*Nice.]  
*like that’s cold right??

-Who were you texting?

*angelica

-The one who introduced you to alex?  
-I’ve met her before  
-She seems nice

*yeah  
*she and alex were flirting i think but then she walked over and pulled me over to meet alex and then she left the party

-Oh  
-Okay

*what is it laaaaaaaaf  
*teeeeeeeeeell meeeeeeeee

-Maybe it is a little cold, but she will hopefully get over him

*him?  
*oh  
*oH  
*OH  
*:(

-But you say you two are friends?

*yeah  
*she said i reminded her of her sisters

-Then she won’t try to have him  
-But you should get him

*how?? :(

-Intense flirting  
-;)

*THATS NOT GOOD ADVICE LAF

 

MARIA-

“Hello, this is Maria Lewis. Who is this?”

“You don’t have my number saved in your phone? Rude. This is Theodosia, I last talked to you a few days ago.”

“Oh, hello, Theo. What’s up?”

“I thought you had gotten your powers under control.”

“I had! There was a little incident today- sorry about not telling you, I was going to soon- but only one. I think I’m getting better.”

“Not so fast, Maria. That woman you ran into today? Almost jumped into traffic to impress you. Seriously, if Aaron and I hadn’t been there, it would’ve been bad.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I’m meeting with Eliza- you know, the one you ran into- and her sisters tomorrow at one, but I’d like to see you soon. Do you think you can come by my office tomorrow at seven?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“Great. That’s all I had to say, but if there’s anything you need?”

“No- wait! Do you think I could have Eliza’s phone number?”

“I’ll ask her tomorrow. Anything else?”

“No, that’s it. Thank you, Theo.”

“It’s nothing. Bye.”

“Bye.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... how am i doing? Tell me what you think :D 
> 
> Also- is this format working for you guys? I'm probably not going to change the way the texts are sent, and it'll be different for group chats, but for between 2 people, does it work this way? idk man
> 
> thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica, Eliza, Peggy, and Aaron and Theo get lunch and talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy
> 
> Sorry for not posting yesterday! I was VERY busy! But hey, there's a chapter today! I'm gonna be pretty busy most of the time, as I'm in the school musical right now and there's a LOT of practices! but hey, it's fun! Anyway, I'll try to keep a regular posting schedule now. Maybe like Saturdays or sundays??? idk

Peggy was bouncing in the backseat of Angelica and Eliza’s car. Eliza sat in the front passenger seat while Angelica drove.

“We’re late,” Peggy complained.

“We,” Angelica gestures to herself and Eliza, “were on time. You were the one who made us late.”

“Wow, classy, blaming all your problems on the younger sister. Real nice.”

Eliza laughed. “It’s only mean when the problem didn’t happen because of the younger sister. If I recall correctly, which I do, then you answered the door in your pajamas.”

“You guys came here early!”

“We came at 12:31, so no, we weren’t.”

“Ugh.”

Eliza laughs again, then changes the subject. “Any homework?”

“No. Did it yesterday while you were off jumping into the road, thank you very much.”

“Did you?” Angelica asks. “Thought you were too busy. Or something.”

Peggy rolled her eyes. “You guys are the worst.”

Angelica and Eliza expected Peggy to say something after that, but she didn’t. Eliza asked Peggy a question about school and she didn’t reply. 

“Nervous?” Angelica asked softly.

“What?” Peggy looked up. “Oh, um, yeah. I am. You know, I’ve been wondering ever since you got your powers, and then Eliza, when you got your powers, I wondered if I had some. I mean, I figured I did and I still think I do, but what if I don’t?”

“Then you’ll make your way in the world differently. Sure, you won’t get any powers related jobs, like we’ve had and like Theo and Aaron have, but you’ll still be you.” Eliza answered her. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Peggy leaned back in her seat and pulled out her phone. She checked out all the group chats she was in (in one a strange game of hide-and-seek seemed to be happening, in another a discussion about how awful one of their teachers was) and just tried to waste time. 

Peggy had never really wanted to have a flashy power. She wanted something that wasn’t visible, like Angelica’s and Eliza’s. 

“We’re here!” Angelica announced, parking the car, throwing open her door, and leaping out. Eliza laughed and stepped out a little more gracefully. Peggy’s exit was something somewhere in the middle. 

“There’s Theo.” Eliza pointed to a woman standing outside the doors. Eliza waved at her, and she waved back. 

“Angelica! Eliza! Peggy!” Theo called. “Hey! Nice to see you guys! And nice to meet you, Peggy.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Aaron’s already got us a table,” Theo told them as they walked in. “We’ve got water’s for the five of us already, but guys can obviously get something else.” She lead the group to a table where Aaron was already sitting. He smiled at the sisters as they sat down. Theo slid in next to Aaron on one side of the table, and the Schuyler Sister’s sat across from them, with Peggy sitting directly across from Theo.

“Nice to see you.”

“That’s what I said! Alright, so I know that you guys just got here but it’d be best if we got down to business. That all right?” 

Peggy waited for a moment before realizing that the question was directed at her. “Oh! Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Great! Okay, so. First things first, it looks like the lovesick stuff has worn off of you, Eliza, which is great! I’ve talked to Maria, she’s sorry, and we’re going to try to help her contain her powers better. Remember, if you run into someone affected by someone else’s power’s, it’s kind of our job to deal with it, so if we don’t have class we’ll try to get to you.”

 

“If it’s something quick, I can deal with it, and try to get the power-effects off the person who's affected. Eliza, you’re probably able to deal with some stuff if you get the person who’s affected to relax.” Aaron added.

“Good to know.” Eliza nodded.

Theo was just about to start talking again when the waiter came, and took their drink and lunch orders. Theo waited until the waiter was finished talking and had started to walk away before continuing.

“Alright! To the thing that we mostly came here for… Peggy!”

Peggy looked at Theo.

“Alright! Now, this is going to be a little bit different, because your powers haven’t revealed themselves naturally yet. This is normal for-- wait, how old are you again?”

“I’m a senior in highschool.”

“Okay, good to know. Eliza, Angelica, when did your powers show up?”

“About middle school, for me.” Eliza said. “I’m not sure when exactly,” she shrugged. “But it only was clear in seventh grade.”

“And for me it was in third grade. We were learning about some simple New York history, and the teacher said something that got us all talking. She said that no one knew exactly what had happened, but had some pretty good guesses. During recess after that, we were still talking about it. And I did something that threw me out of my body and into the past.”

“Third grade? Interesting. Okay, so if you have powers, it’s a little late showing up. Now I need you to look into my eyes. We gotta have eye contact for this bit, but then I’ll be able to know.”

“Okay.” Peggy swallowed and nodded, before staring into Theodosia’s eyes. Peggy hadn’t noticed before, but Theo had really pretty brown eyes. Her eyes weren’t focused, even though she was staring at Peggy. It was a little creepy, Peggy decided. 

Theo nodded slowly. “Okay. Okaay. Interesting. Very interesting.”

“What is?” Peggy asked.

“You have powers, that’s for certain.”

Peggy let go of a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. “What are they?” She asked.

Theo broke the eye contact and started to explain, “It’s a kind of--”  
And was cut off by the waiter coming with the food. The group thanked the waiter, and started eating their lunches as they turned their attention back to Theo.

Theo took a sip of her drink before going back to what she was saying. “It’s a kind of mimic type thing. You’re able to.. How would I put this… Take on different appearances? Like, if you see something, you can be it. You’ve also got the ability to take on voices.”

Peggy’s eyes were wide. This was not what she had been thinking she would be able to do. And all that stuff! When would she ever learn how to do it? A thousand questions bubbled in her mind that she just had to ask.

“Like stealing?”

“No. It’s like-- um. You’d be able to take on the appearance or voice, but the thing you’re taking it from still has it. Like, when you’re using a computer or whatever, when you copy stuff, you don’t have to delete it to copy it. You know?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“When will she start be able to do the stuff you’re saying?” Angelica asked.

“Pretty soon, I’d imagine.” Aaron cut in. “Once you know what they are, it’s easier to do it.”

Peggy zoned out while her sisters asked questions, just thinking. It was a lot to process. She finished her lunch and just thought.

Theo was talking when Aaron’s phone rang. He raised his eyebrows when he saw who it was, then answered it. 

“Hello? Yes, Theo and I are still meeting with them. Mmm hmm. Yeah, Theo found out. Yes. Yes. No. Yes, alright. We can be there. See you soon. Bye.”

“The office?” Theo asked.

Aaron nodded at her, before turning back to the sisters. “We’ve got to go, sorry. Uh, we can pay you back later? For lunch?”

Angelica waved it off. “It’s fine, I’ve got it. I’ll see you guys later?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Bye!” Theo and Aaron started to walk away, before Theo turned around. “Oh! I almost forgot. Eliza, Maria asked for your number? Is it okay if I text it to her?”

Eliza looked startled for a moment before she nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Alright! See you guys later!”

The couple waved the sisters goodbye as they left the restaurant. The waiter came back, Angelica payed, they left. Peggy thought about what she had learned the entire time. 

“You know, this makes sense.” 

“Huh?” Peggy looked up, turning her attention back to her sisters inside the car, from where she had been staring outside. “What was that, Eliza?”

“It makes sense that this is your power. You’ve always been unusually great at impressions.”

The three laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Every new kudos and comment I see I get really happy :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chat (this time a groupchat), with a phone call at the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyyyy here i am
> 
> tell me what you guys think! i've got another chapter in reserve that im pretty sure ill post tomorrow so there's that!

GROUP CHAT- ALEX, ANGELICA, JOHN

 

JOHN: what is this

 

ALEX: group chat!!!!

ALEX: i was bored so

ALEX: here it is

 

ANGELICA: Three people is kind of sad for a group chat

 

ALEX: you wound me, angelica

ALEX: john can u add herc and laf

 

JOHN: fine

 

John added HERC and LAF to GROUP CHAT-

 

JOHN: there

 

ANGELICA: who are these 

 

ALEX: friends!!! :D

 

LAF: alexander

LAF: what is this

 

ALEX: groupchat!!! :D

 

HERC: who’s anglica?

 

ANGELICA: Me

ANGELICA: One of Alex’s and John’s friends i guess

 

LAF: ohh

LAF: this is angelica

LAF: i have heard stories about you, from john

 

ANGELICA: Have you been talking shit about me john

 

JOHN: yes

 

ANGELICA: Wow   
ANGELICA: Rude

 

ALEX: who can i add to make this chat even better??

 

ANGELICA: My sisters?   
  


ALEX: YES

ALEX: ADD THEM

 

HERC: you’ve got sisters?   
  


ANGELICA: Yeah

ANGELICA: Eliza is a year younger and Peggy is like 2 years younger

ANGELICA: She’s in highschool

 

ALEX: pure

 

LAF: don’t corrupt her mon ami

 

ANGELICA: I’m not sure if you can corrupt her anymore then she already is but please don’t

 

ALEX: fine

 

ANGELICA added ELIZA and PEGGY to GROUPCHAT-

 

PEGGY: FINALLY   
PEGGY: ANGELICA TELL ELIZA SHES FUCKIN WRONG

 

ELIZA: I’m not???   
ELIZA: You’re wrong??

 

ANGELICA: What’s the problem?

 

PEGGY: PINEAPPLE   
PEGGY: PINEAPPLE IS A GREAT ADDITION TO PIZZA AND ANYONE WHO THINKS DIFFERENTLY CAN LEAVE

 

ALEX: EXACTLY   
  


ELIZA: ??

  
PEGGY: ????????????????

 

ANGELICA: This is a group chat

 

PEGGY: oh

PEGGY: why

 

ALEX: because!!!

  
PEGGY: who are these people?   
  


LAF: we should do introductions!!

 

PEGGY: OOO I KNOW   
PEGGY: SAY UR NAME AND UR POWER

PEGGY: BECAUSE I HAVE HAD TO MANY OF THESE INTRODUCTIONS BEFORE IN SCHOOL   
PEGGY: AND NOW I GET TO SAY SOMETHING INTERESTING   
  


LAF: okay!! 

LAF: someone else start first though

 

JOHN: im john!!   
JOHN: i can make doorways and rooms n stuff in the air??   
JOHN: it’s kind of hard to explain

 

HERC: i’m herc

HERC: short for hercules btw but i don’t go by that

HERC: i can become invisible and i can spread the invisibility outwards and like share it with people and objects

 

PEGGY: like a spy?

  
HERC: kinda? Ive sneaked in the past

  
PEGGY: nice

 

LAF: me!!   
LAF: i am Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

 

ANGELICA: Damn

 

LAF: but i go by Laf or Lafayette

LAF: and my powers are that i can communicate really well!   
  


ELIZA: What?   
  
LAF: I can ‘see’ through lies and i can also lie very convincingly

 

PEGGY: i’m peggy!!!!!!!!   
PEGGY: i found out yesterday that i can mimic the look of other stuff and mimic the sound of other stuff

PEGGY: so far, i’ve been able to mimic other sounds pretty closely and kind of mimic other appearances!!!

 

ELIZA: PEGGY   
  
ANGELICA: PEGGY

 

ELIZA: Why didn’t you text right away?

  
ANGELICA: Or call???

 

PEGGY: i was to distracted being awESOME   
  


LAF: moving on!   
LAF: the others?   
  


ANGELICA: I’m Angelica

ANGELICA: I can leave my body and pause time and rewind time

ANGELICA: But I can’t touch/interact with anything when outside of my body

 

ELIZA: I’m Eliza

ELIZA: I can make people relaxed/make people agitated, and I can make places really light and sunny/make places really dark and gloomy

 

ALEX: woah

ALEX: sounds like it’d be useful during tests and stuff?

ALEX: to like calm people down   
  
ELIZA: Yup!   
ELIZA: And when I’m sitting down and the sun goes down but I don’t want to get up and turn on the light

 

HERC: lol

 

ANGELICA: Alex, what about you?   
  
PEGGY: Yeah you

 

ELIZA: What can you do   
  


ALEX: well

ALEX: my name’s alexander

ALEX: but i go by alex

ALEX: and as far as anyone knows, i either don’t have powers or they’re too subtle to be recognized as powers

 

PEGGY: oh

 

….

 

….

  
  


JOHN: anyway

JOHN: we should all meet up!!   
  


ANGELICA: It’s Monday

  
LAF: we could meet up for dinner?

 

HERC: that works

  
ALEX: yeah that works

 

ELIZA: I’m free

 

ANGELICA: Same

 

JOHN: i’m always free

JOHN: it’s america

  
ALEX: actually none of us are really free

 

JOHN: shut it

JOHN: I can go tho

 

PEGGY: :((((((   
PEGGY: I can’t

 

ANGELICA: Ha

 

PEGGY: damn it

PEGGY: ill just go get arrested or something lolllll   
  
ELIZA: Wait

  
HERC: no don’t do that

 

PEGGY: byeeee looooooosers

PEGGY: margarita’s oUT   
  


LAF: oh well

 

ALEX: i like your sister, angelica

 

ELIZA: Thanks

 

ALEX: not you

ALEX: but you’re nice too

ALEX: ;)

  
ANGELICA: No flirting with my sisters

ANGELICA: Any of them

 

LAF: when will we meet up?   
  


HERC: and where?   
  


JOHN: yeah yeah yeah we should work that out

  
  


GROUP CHAT- THEO, MARIA, ELIZA

 

THEO: okay

THEO: Eliza, this is Maria and her number

THEO: Maria, this is Eliza and her number

THEO: I wanted to make sure you guys knew that it was really the other person

 

MARIA: Thanks

 

ELIZA: Yeah thanks

 

THEO: there

THEO: my good deed of the day

THEO: bye

  
  


ELIZA-

 

“Hello? Is this Maria?”

  
“Yes, this is. This is Eliza?”  


“It is.”

 

….

 

….

 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize I was casting out when I ran into you! I’m so sorry, I almost killed you!”

 

“No, no, it’s fine! Well, not really, but both of us are fine and you haven’t done it since, right?”

“Yeah.”   
  


“And you’re able to control it?”

 

“Yes, mostly. Aaron gave me this bracelet. I can switch it on and off to different levels. With it on to one level, it blocks out my powers and the powers of people in the surrounding area. On another level, it just blocks out mine, and on another, it just blocks out other people’s powers. For protection.”

“It’s good he got it for you! I didn’t realize those sorts of things were on the market?”

 

“No, I don’t think they are. I think he made it? I’m not sure. But either way, it works.”   
  


“That’s good, that’s good.”   
  


….

 

…. 

….

 

_ [There is muffled background noise. There’s shouting. _

_ “Look, Herc is climbing!” _ _   
_

_ “Get down, you’ll get us all in trouble!’ _

_ “Shit, think he can make it all the way?” _

 

_ “Eliza, look at this!”] _

“I’m really sorry, but there’s something going on that I gotta see. I’ll talk to you later? Or text?”   
  


“Of course, of course. Nice talking to you, Eliza. Bye.”   
  


“Bye, Maria.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was the chapter! Tell me what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria and a new problem, some Peggy, and some John and Alex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning to post this chapter yesterday  
> WHOOPS
> 
> In other news, this story has like 56 kudos and over 500 hits and oH MY GOD THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! This story is almost my most successful and I'm EXITED!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

It wasn’t that Maria hated waitressing. No, scratch that. She did. But it helped pay the bills.

She looked down, checking her watch and seeing that her bracelet was still turned on. It was set to the setting so that her powers were damped, but not people’s around her. Good. Her watch told her that she was off duty soon. Even better.

 

Maria walked up the center aisle of the restaurant to give the bill to a table. The man sitting there had been… alright. He was perfectly polite, but his eyes… Maria saw something in them that set her on edge. The man had very pale skin, and dark red hair. He was wearing a business suit, which looked out of place both in the restaurant and on the man.

Maria placed the bill for the man’s dinner on the table.

“You can just bring the bill up to the front when you’re done! Have a good evening!” She turned to walk away from the man, who looked like he was just ignoring her.

“Hey,” he said, looking up at her and startling her a little bit.

“Yes?”

He made eye contact with her, then said “You’re a very pretty woman.”

Somewhere in Maria’s mind told her that she should be freaked out by that, or offended. She faintly remembered feeling very nervous around this man. But why would she be?

“Thank you,” Maria said, not breaking the eye contact.

“Would you sit down? We can chat a while.”

She sat down across from him almost right after he said that, still staring into his eyes. His eyes! They were so captivating, so fascinating!

“Of course.”

“Yes, that’s good. And as I said, you’re a very pretty woman. Probably smart, too. And powerful, from what I’m told. Would you like to work for me?”

The part of Maria’s brain telling her to punch him and run was much quieter now. It said something about how she shouldn’t do it. She ignored it.

“Yes.”

“Great. Would you like to follow me?” The man stood up and Maria quickly followed. They hadn’t broken eye contact yet, Maria realized. He was taking great care in making sure that they were staring into each other’s eyes. How respectful!

“Let’s go,” he said, and they almost started walking when Maria’s watch started beeping. She looked down instinctively.  
Wait, what? Why was she standing next to this man? What had they been talking about? She thought hard for a moment, before remembering. She was going to work for him?

The man grabbed her arm with one hand and her face with the other, trying to get them to make eye contact again. Maria screamed, the sound deafening, and pulled her arm away. She had pulled it fast enough that her own arm hit her side, with something digging into her. Her bracelet!

Maria quickly switched it from ‘damping her powers’ ‘to ‘turning off other people’s powers’. Instantly, she felt better. She wasn’t sure what was better, exactly, but her mind felt clear and she felt stronger.

People in nearby tables had seen the entire thing happen, and some of the people who worked at the restaurant had come running when they heard her scream.

The pale man, realizing he would be caught, slapped Maria and turned to run away. A few people blocked his path, but not enough for him to be completely stopped.

He was able to escape, leaving Maria staring after him, one hand gently touching where he hit her. Everything was quiet, with nobody speaking or moving, before springing back into action. Some people ran after the man. Maria stayed there, her hand still on her face.

If not for her watch signaling the end of her shift, she would have gone with him. And what would have happened to her?

 

THEO-

“Hey, Maria, what’s up?”

“I have so much to tell you.”

 

Peggy swung her backpack off as she sat down in the cold plastic chair. She rolled her eyes when she saw that the teacher wasn’t there yet, and that some kids were messaging around up front, looking through papers and causing some general chaos. Ugh.

She had been practicing her mimicking recently, and even though it wasn’t the best yet, it was definitely improving.

Last night, Peggy had spent around two hours practicing just mimicking voices. She had listened to multiple YouTubers and musicians, as well as just doing voices of the people she knew in person. One of them was the teacher of this class.

Looking around and seeing that the teacher still wasn’t there, Peggy coughed to clear her throat then put her hands casually in front of her mouth so people wouldn’t see it was really her talking. Then she spoke.

_“Hey! What are you kids doing?! Put those papers DOWN, Dillan!”_

The kids that were messing around froze, and Dillan dropped the papers. Then they saw that the door still hadn’t opened, and that their teacher wasn’t there yet.

“What the fuck,” someone whispered.

Everyone moved to their desks and sat without making a sound.

Peggy smiled.

 

John was bored. He had done everything that was due. His dorm didn’t need cleaning. He wasn’t feeling inspired enough to draw anything. There was nothing to do.

Well, he thought, looking at his phone as it lit up with a text. Maybe there was something.

ALEX-

-john im bored help me

*same!!!  
*maybe we could hang out?

-yess  
-meet me in my dorm?  
*sure  
*see you very soon

-see you very soon

John stretched as he stood up. He pushed his phone into his pocket, and pulled on his shoes in case they did anything outside. He grabbed his coat and his wallet as well, for just in case. Then he started to open a doorway to outside Alex’s dorm.

Generally, he could make doorways and rooms fast, but he wasn’t trying very hard to do it quickly, so it didn’t open instantly.

John gestured his hand in a kind of spinning motion. He didn’t actually have to move to create a doorway or a room, but again, he wasn’t trying very hard, so he was using the movements.

The doorway opened and he stepped through. As soon as he was completely out of the doorway, he closed it. Then he knocked on Alex’s door.

“It’s open, come in!” came the shout from inside. John laughed and opened the door, revealing Alex lounging on his bed, typing something on his laptop. His hair was mostly in a ponytail, but there were lots of stray strands falling loose. His faded blue t-shirt was too big for him, which could have made it anyone in their friend group’s shirt, except that it was way too big for him, and John was pretty sure that he had seen Herc wearing it recently. His sweatpants were green, and looked like they were too long for him, but John didn’t recognize them, so he was pretty sure that they were Alex’s. And, as always, Alex was beautiful.

Alex looked up and grinned at John. John felt like his heart skipped a beat.

“Come sit with me!”

John kicked off his shoes before jumping on the bed to sit next to Alex. “What do you want to do?”

Alexander shrugged  
.  
“We could watch something,” John suggested.

Alex thought for a moment then shook his head. “Nah. Wanna go for a walk around the city or something? We could have an adventure.”

“Sure.” John moved to put his shoes back on.

Alex got up as well, and filled the room with his talking while he put his shoes on.

“Walking around and stuff isn’t really as fun when you have someone to go with. You know, I was really bored like five minutes ago, but now that you’re here, I’m not. That’s so awesome. Having friends is awesome. You know, I wasn’t really Burr’s friend, but being around him was so boring sometimes. But you’re never boring!”

John blushed and laughed. “Thanks, Alex.”

 

HERC-

*hey herc

-what

*do you think that people think less of me because i don’t have powers?

 

-no, I don’t

*but they do!

 

-some people will always think less of you  
-you’ve just gotta own it and prove them wrong  
-like you’ve been doing your entire life

*thanks herc  
*I really needed that

-no problem

*i’ve got to go now, i’ll talk to you later

-ok  
-bye  
-just remember that we’ll always be here for you

*sure  
*bye

 

-bye


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy is added to the mix, even more than she is already and we get to see some more Theo.

As Peggy was dropped off on campus, she started having second thoughts on her plan. School was off today, a wednesday, and it was off for the rest of the week. Peggy and her parents decided to let Peggy go and visit her sisters, but as a surprise. They hadn’t told anyone on campus that she was coming.

As Peggy walked to Angelica and Eliza’s apartment, she was realizing that it might have been a mistake to not call the two first.

And as she found that the door was locked, she realized it was a mistake. In her moment of excitement about getting to see her sisters, she had forgotten that they were either still in class, or out with their friends. Angelica and Eliza didn’t like to be in the house for too long. 

And her phone was dead, which meant that she couldn’t just text someone in the groupchat she had been added to.

Great.

It had been chilly outside, and she would have to go out again and hope someone could direct her to either her sisters or someone in the groupchat. Peggy sighed.

Was she prepared for the weather? Not as much as she should have been, considering that she had lived in New York her entire life, even if it wasn’t the same place in New York. 

Peggy was wearing a yellow short sleeve dress with a white sweater over it and red converse. Crouching down to open her duffle bag, she pulled out a much thicker gray sweatshirt, which, besides not exactly going with her outfit, was warm and soft. She pulled off her sweater and replaced it with the sweatshirt, before standing up again.

She walked back down the stairs of the apartment building and out into the sidewalk. Looking around at the bustling city life, she prepared herself for the commute to campus. 

Peggy was going to find someone that could lead her to her sisters, or at least someone who knew who they were. 

As she walked, Peggy repeated the names she could remember aloud. She spoke softly, but she was certain that some people would be looking at her weird. Oh well.

“Alexander, or Alex. John. Hercules, or Herc. Some guy with a really long name, or Lafayette.”

 

 

 

Hercules and Lafayette had been sitting together on one of the benches outside the library. It was a nice day out, even with the chill, because the sky was clear. Lafayette was reading a French book. Hercules sketched out an outfit for his fashion class. Both were working quietly, not wanting to disrupt the calm that surrounded them, almost like Eliza was there.

Even if Hercules’s hand was getting a little cramped and Lafayette was getting a little bit cold, neither of them wanted to talk or move.

In the end, neither of them had to break the peace, because someone else did it for them.

“Excuse me!”

The woman who had approached them was short, probably about the same height as Alexander. Her curly brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, which was also like Alexander. She also was wearing a baggy gray sweatshirt, which again, was like Alexander.

But those were the only things they could see right away that was like Alex. She looked much more like Angelica or Eliza. Her sister, maybe? Neither Hercules or Lafayette could tell. 

“Excuse me, sorry to bother you. But do either of you know Angelica or Eliza Schuyler? They’re my sisters.”

Hercules was about to say that yes, they did know them, when Lafayette spoke up.

“Perhaps. Can you describe them? And anyone else you might know?”

“Uh, okay! There’s, um, Alexander? Who types a lot I guess? And uh, likes pineapple on pizza? And there’s John. And also some dude named Hercules. And there’s another one! He goes by Lafayette, because he has this really long name!”

Lafayette laughed, and was about to cut her off and tell the girl who he was when she kept talking.

“And there’s Aaron Burr and Theodosia, who are like, really cool.”

This time Hercules laughed.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Lafayette said. “Except that it is me, Lafayette. And this is Hercules.”

“Oh.” She paused. “Hey, wait! Did you know who they were all along?”

“Yes, but it is always interesting to see what one would describe you as.”

“I guess. I’m Peggy, by the way, but you probably already know that.”

“Yeah,” Hercules said. “Do your sisters know you were coming? ‘Cause they seem like they’d be pretty excited ‘bout it.”

“Nope!” Peggy popped the ‘p’ of nope. “It’s a surprise. And my phone died, so when they weren’t at their apartment, I couldn’t text them.”

“Ah! Well, should we still surprise them?”

Peggy thought for a moment, looking around to see what was near them. Seeing the library, she nodded. 

“Yeah, let’s surprise them. Let’s go over there,” she pointed to the bushes in front of the library. “And I need to use one of your phones to send a text.”

 

Angelica and Eliza had been eating lunch with John in John’s dorm when all of their phones made a notification sound at once.

“Must be the groupchat,” John said as he reached for his phone. 

GROUPCHAT-

HERC- angelica, eliza  
HERC- come down to the library  
HERC- we’ve got something cool that you HAVE to see

ELIZA- What is it?

 

HERC- something cool  
HERC- that you have to see

ANGELICA- Fine, we’re going.  
ANGELICA- But John’s coming too.

HERC- fine  
HERC- but come quickly

 

Angelica, Eliza, and John had been looking around for their friends when they saw Hercules and Lafayette standing in front of some bushes.

“Angelica! Eliza!” Lafayette shouted. “You made it! You’ve got to see this!”

“What is it?” Eliza asked.

“An empty spot in this bush!”

“What?” Angelica raised her eyebrows. “You called us down to see some bush?”

“You should look, you know.” Hercules said with a grin. “It’s really cool.”

Angelica rolled her eyes and stepped forward, looking into the empty spot. She could see the side of the library. Wow. Interesting.

She was about to back away when a blur of color jumped into view, shouting.  
Angelica screamed and almost fell, when Hercules caught her. The figure grinned, and Angelica recognized it. It was her.  
Well, not quite. The eyes weren’t the right color and the clothes were wrong, but other than that, it was her.

There was only one person she knew that had powers like that. “Peggy?” Angelica guessed.   
“It’s me!” Peggy smiled a bright smile and started to change back into herself. 

“You’re here?” Eliza gasped.

“I am! School’s out for the rest of the week and I was gonna surprise you at your apartment, but guess what! You guys weren’t there! But I ran into these guys and they helped me--”

Eliza and Angelica cut her off by hugging her. Peggy laughed.

Eliza pushed Peggy out so she could look at her fully. “You’re a quick learner. A week ago, you didn’t even know if you had powers. Look at you now!”

Peggy smiled. “I know. Now, I want to have an experience! Let’s go meet the others! And also drop off my stuff and maybe charge my phone! But let’s go!”

The other people in their group of five smiled at her.

“Yes. Allons-y!” Lafayette said with a laugh.

The group headed out in the direction of Angelica and Eliza’s apartment.

 

“Ugh.” Theo leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. She was in her and Aaron’s office.

Where was their office? It was in the New York branch of the Control and Study of Magical Powers, or NYCSMP. Not exactly something that rolled off the tongue, but it did what it needed to. 

Currently, Theo was listening to the recordings of the witness’s accounts of what had happened to Maria while watching the footage from the restaurant's security cameras.

Theo knew, deep inside, that this was the beginning of something big, and something bad. She pushed away those thoughts. 

She had gotten to Maria in time for there to still be very faint traces of the other man, Samuel Seabury. But that didn’t help at all to track him. They’d have to get someone, possibly Angelica (was what her boss had said. But Theo knew better than that. They’d have to bring her her in), to rewind and watch what had happened and where he had gone after that. 

Until then, they’d just have to make do with the videos and what the witnesses said. Sighing, Theo started the video over, this time looking at what Samuel had done every time he interacted with Maria before the end of the meal. 

This was going to take a while, and Theo wasn’t sure if she liked what she found out by the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!  
> kidding, kind of. i have a plan. mostly. 
> 
> Tell me what you guys think! See you later!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group has a sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i'm here with another chapter
> 
> ALSO HEY IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, THESE ARE THE POWERS OF THE CHARACTERS IN MORE DETAIL:
> 
> Angelica- Her's is pretty well explained I think. She can pause and rewind time, and she can move around in the past, but she can't interact with anything
> 
> Eliza- She can fill areas with light/darken areas, and can make people very relaxed/very stressed
> 
> Peggy- She can mimic anything she can see or hear. She doesn't have to see the thing in person.
> 
> John- He can create doorways to other places. He needs to know where the place is (he can't just teleport to people). He doesn't need to move to create the doorways, and if necessary can create them around him without needing to step through, but it takes a lot more energy.
> 
> Laf.- He can lie without people knowing he's lying, and knows when other people are lying. (Originally, he could also learn other languages from hearing bits of it, but I figured that that was to overpowered) 
> 
> Herc.- He can become completely invisible and make other things near him invisible as well, like people, animals, and objects. 
> 
> Theo- She can tell what other people's powers are and can see the powers. For example, when she looked at Eliza in the second chapter, she saw what her power was by looking at her and that she was lovestruck (or whatever she called it) by the aura around her.
> 
> Aaron- He can cancel out other powers. He's not constantly doing it, which is why other people's powers work around him. He can also direct which person's powers he wants to cancel out.
> 
>  
> 
> hope that helped if any of you guys were confused!

 

“Nathan, I’m gonna be going out with my friends later, and I think we’re having a sleepover at the Schuyler’s so you’ll have the dorm to yourself tonight!” The statement would have been completely fine if Alex hadn’t paired it with an obnoxiously over-exaggerated wink.

 

Nathan laughed. He and Alex were friends. Maybe not the closest friends, but they had each other's backs. Nathan, short for Nathaniel, had powers, unlike Alex. But his powers were different than other people’s. He could see other, different, universes. When he was younger, it practically drove him insane. Nathan would stare at people, see who they had been and what they had done in past lives. Sometimes he’d see how they died. It was awful.

 

When Nathan had first met Alex, he had started screaming. It wasn’t everyday he met someone who he’d also met in a different life. But after he had calmed down and explained everything, Alex still wanted to hang out with him. That hadn’t always happened. 

 

“I can’t waaaait to spend that time… watching YouTube without headphones.”

 

The two laughed again. Both of them knew that Nathan was an aromantic asexual. 

“If we do stay at the Schuyler’s, then I’ll come back with John to get some stuff. And with that!” Alex bounced off of his bed and made his way to the door. “I’ll be going. Bye!”

 

“Bye! Don’t get in a boat!”

 

“I won’t!” 

 

And with that, the door slammed shut behind Alex and he was gone. Nathan smiled and, true to his word, slid his headphones off and unplugged them, turning up the volume.

  
  
  


_ “I’m Angelica. I had an awkward emo phase directly after my awkward pink-bubblegum-pop phase and dyed half of my clothes black and burned the other half.” _

 

“I didn’t!” Angelica protested, shoving Peggy lightly as the group erupted into laughter. Alex leaned sidewise as he laughed, spilling onto Lafayette's lap. Lafayette 

pushed him off, throwing him into John’s lap. Alex made a face at Lafayette but didn’t get up.  From the position Alex was in, he couldn’t see how red John’s face was.

 

Hercules took pity on him. “Angelica having an emo phase I can believe, but not the bubblegum-pink phase. Like, I know she wears a lot of pink, but like, fashionably.” 

“I’ve got pictures,” Eliza said, picking up her phone. 

 

“I’ve gotta see if this actually happened,” John said, leaning forward as best as he could without knocking Alex out of his lap.

 

Angelica knocked it out of Eliza’s hands, answering the question without saying a word. They all laughed again. 

 

The group talked some more, about various things, when Peggy slid off the bed the sisters were sitting on. 

 

“We should go out! And do something! I bet I could get us into a movie if I acted like a famous actress or something. Hell, doesn’t even have to be an actress. If I wore sunglasses and borrowed some clothes I could convincingly be, like, anyone.”

 

“Pretty sure we’d have to report you to Theo or Aaron for that,” Eliza warned.

 

“Let’s do it, then!” Alex jumped off John’s lap.

 

“Nope,” Hercules said as he pulled Alex back to the ground. “Not what we’re doing while Peggy’s here.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Who have you perfected so far?” Lafayette asked.

“Oh!” Peggy grinned. “Other than a pretty convicinging Angelica, obviously, I can do a couple others! Let’s see, uh. Eliza! Yeah!”

 

Peggy closed her eyes tightly and swayed back and forth. As she moved, her body started to change. She didn’t grow at all (she didn’t know how to yet), but her hair started to straighten and her skin became lighter. In about half a minute, she had become Eliza as best as she could.

 

Peggy opened her eyes and sat next to Eliza.

“Damn,” Hercules said.

 

“That’s so weird! Can you do her voice, too?” Alex asked.

 

“Let me see. O _ kay, t _ hi _ s is  _ a  _ l _ itt _ le bit sh _ aky. Her  _ voice is mo _ re diff _ erent th _ an  _ Angelica’s a _ n _ d m _ in _ e and it’s  _ hard to concentrate on  _ kee _ p _ ing m _ y bo _ dy in the right s _ ha _ pe while ma _ king the  _ right so _ unds _. Y _ eah.  _ Wait.  _ El _ iza, sa _ y something.”

 

“Angelica cheated off the smartest kid in our class in fifth grade using her time powers and even though it was obvious they couldn’t say she had done it because she was on the other side of the room and nobody knew.”

 

“Did not!”

 

_“Angelica_ is a dirty che _ater and I a_ m jealous that _I didn’t get a grade as good as hers. Hey, there we go.”_

 

Everyone laughed.

  
  
  


John leaned against Alex’s bed as Alex grabbed some stuff and pushed it into a bright red drawstring bag. Nathan was eating a sandwich while reading something.

 

“You know,” Alex said as he stuffed things into his bag. “It’s actually really freaky what Peggy can do.”

 

“Tomahawk staircase.” Nathan called out.

 

“This timeline!” Alex replied, before turning back to his bag and his conversation with John. “Like, it’s scary kinda. She could impersonate any of us, and we wouldn’t know.”

 

“We could make a code if either of us aren’t sure if it really is the right person.”

“Yeah! Okay, let’s see. Maybe if we aren’t sure of the other we could ask what their favorite French word is? And the answer would be ‘Maillot de bain’.”

  
“Swimsuit?” John asked, puzzled.

 

“Yeah, why not? And we can change it later if we have to, don’t worry.”

 

“Alright, that works. Let’s head back, I have to drop of Herc and Laf at their dorm.”

 

“Sure, sure. Let’s go!”

  
  


“And next is the drama of-”

 

“Ugh.” Maria turned off the television and leaned on her side, pulling out her phone. She had a crappy TV and a crappy set of channels for it, but it was what she could afford. 

 

Maria’s apartment was tiny, and decorated with furniture coming from many different places. Even so, all of it went together.

 

There was nothing she could do about the beige walls, so to distract from it, she had warm-colored curtains on every window. She had gotten her couch from when her 

grandparents moved to Florida and had downsized. It was a nice shade of brown, and it was one of the most comfortable pieces of furniture she owned.

 

She had got her kitchen table from an old friend who was moving and couldn’t take it with them. The chairs (hard wood with red seats that didn’t do anything to make them softer) had come from a garage sale after some had died in the house next to her.

 

The full-length mirror in her bedroom came from a friend. Maria’s friend gave her the mirror because it was a gift from a boyfriend that she just couldn’t look at after they had broken up.

 

And Maria’s bed? It was from Ikea.

 

Maria loved her bed the most. It was the only piece of furniture in her apartment that didn’t happen because of a loss.

 

Maria’s phone pinged. There was only one person who would be texting her right now, so she unlocked it quickly and checked to see what it was.

 

ELIZA-

 

-Hey!

-I was wondering if you wanted to hang come over for dinner?  
-It’ll be me, my sisters, and our four friends

-Well

-Four of our friends

-We have more than four friends!

 

Maria laughed softly.

 

-But we wanted to know if you could come for dinner? We’re ordering pizza and we’ll be watching a movie

-The rest of them will be staying over for the night but you don’t have to if you want to!   


*I’d love to, Eliza

 

Maria smiled.

 

*Where do you live?

 

-Oh!  
-If you can go to a restaurant or something near your house we can pick you up!  
-John (One of our friends) can create doorways

-So we could come get you

 

*I live near right next to the big Target

 

-Can we meet you at the Starbucks there?

 

*Sure

*I’ll see you soon

 

-See you soon!   
  


Maria smiled. She was already dressed, so no need to do that. She was pretty sure she wasn’t going to stay the night, she she didn’t need to pack anything. 

 

Nervously, Maria put on some makeup and a different shirt. She checked that her bracelet was still there.  It was strange that she was so nervous, since she and Eliza had been chatting for a couple days. Maybe it was because she would be seeing Eliza in person? Or maybe it was because she was meeting some new people?

 

That would be it, except for the fact the Maria didn’t really get nervous about meeting new people. Controlling a room was her expertise. 

Maria arrived at the meeting place to see Eliza and another man leaning against the counter. 

 

“Maria!” Eliza smiled, her good nature seeming blinding.

 

“Hey!” The other man waved at her.

 

“Hi.”

 

Eliza offered her a cup. “John and I both got something while we waited, and I wasn’t sure what you would like so I got you a caramel frappuccino.” Eliza was speaking kind of fast, like she was a little nervous.

 

“Thank you!” Maria took the cup and sipped the drink. “I love these!”

 

Eliza grinned. “Me too. Hey, you ready to go?”

  
“Sure.”

 

“Great. John?”

  
“I’m ready.”

 

John made a little spinning motion with one hand and suddenly, a door appeared. Through it, Maria could see the door to an apartment. Eliza stepped through first, and Maria followed her. John came through close behind and closed the door once he was through.

 

Maria could her laughing and loud talking through the door.

 

“We’re back!” Eliza called, knocking on the door. 

 

The door was opened by a woman in yellow.

 

“Not the pizza.” She closed the door.

 

“Peggy!” Eliza complained.

 

John laughed and opened another doorway, this time into the apartment.

 

“Now we’re here,” Eliza said as she walked through.

 

And the nervous feeling was gone as Maria walked into the apartment, surrounded by people and in her element. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nathan's power is that he can see alternate universes when he looks at other people, and what happened. He can mostly control it, but sometimes it's a little difficult to tell. 
> 
> He's also aro/ace! :D
> 
> Thanks for reading, and tell me what you think! Next chapter will most likely be on friday or saturday!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex has a dream, Peggy ponders powers, Theo and Aaron are domestic, and we check in with a certain someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what up my dudes? 
> 
> I noticed that there's 71 kudos????? holy shit?????? that's like 71% of the way to 100 kudos??? But seriously, to everyone who's with me and reading this, thank you so much!! I love you guys!

In the dream, Alex was writing. 

He’d had dreams like these before. They always were like this, with Alex being Alex but not quite. He’d talked to Burr about it when it got to the point where he was being woken up every time he would go to sleep.

Turns out that Nathan had been accidently letting waves of his power go out, like Maria’s had been. Because Alex spent so much time in the same room as him, he would be dreaming in other universes or timelines. 

After Nathan had gone to Theo and Burr for help, it stopped.

And here he was, dreaming in other universes again.

He was writing a letter, to a Mr. James Reynolds, but the the letters were blurry and he couldn’t see what they said.

And then he was sitting in a bed with Maria. She looked like the Maria that was currently sleeping next to Eliza on the floor.

And then they were doing more than sitting on the bed. 

And then he was writing again.

And then time passed, and he could see Eliza as she walked down one of the hallways in their house, avoiding his eyes and trying to stop the tears before one of their children could see.

And then there was Angelica, who was saying something. The worlds were muffled, and he couldn’t hear exactly what was being said. 

And then he was crossing a river in a boat, with Nathan and one other man.

And then he was shot.

And then he woke up.

 

Hercules was naturally an early riser, and staying at someone else’s house didn’t change   
that. He had moved from the floor, where everyone else was, to the couch.

It wasn’t like they were sleeping on the hard floor, but instead the mattresses from Angelica and Eliza’s rooms and the pillows that came with them.

When Hercules had woken up, he had been wrapped around Lafayette. Alex had been laying on John. Peggy was lying in between her sisters, with Maria next to Eliza.

Hercules waited patiently for the others to wake up when Alex started awake with a muffled scream that came out as a gasp.

Alex sat up, rolling off John and hitting Lafayette. Neither of them woke up.

“Alex? You okay?” 

“He shot me while he shouted ‘wait!’, isn’t that such a Burr thing to do?” Alex asked.

“Not quite sure what you mean, Alex.”

“I mean that Burr’s an indecisive asshole and I need to punch him.”

“How is that different than normal?”

“It’s-- ah. It was-- I was--”

Hercules patted the couch cushion next to him. “Here, sit here, let’s not wake them.”

“Fine.” Alex moved shakily to sit next to Hercules.

“Alright. What happened?”

“It was an, uh, nightmare. A while ago I had these nightmares ‘cause of power leaking off from Nathan, but he got help from Theo and Burr and they stopped and I don’t know why I had another.”

Hercules put a reassuring hand on Alex’s back. “What happened in the dream?”

“Well, in the dream, it skipped a bunch of time but I know about what happened in between because of Nathan and also because of other dreams. But in the beginning of the dream I was cheating on Eliza with Maria and then I told the whole world about it and then Angelica came and was pissed at me and then I went to duel Burr and I got shot.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, I, uh guess Nathan and I need to go back to talk with Theo and Burr again.” Alex leaned against Hercules and Hercules put his arms around him.

“Sounds like a plan, then.”

“Yeah. Hey, could you not tell the others about it? I know that it was an alternate life that never really happened but I still don’t want them to know.”

“Yeah, of course.”

The two started talking about other things in soft voices while waiting for the others to wake up. They hadn’t noticed that one person had been awake. 

Peggy. 

 

 

Peggy had never been a heavy sleeper, so when Alex woke up of course she had woken up. She had considered getting up and seeing if there was something she could do to help Alex when she decided against it. Hercules was helping him, after all. 

She didn’t mean to listen in on what was clearly a private conversation, but ended up not being able to ignore it. 

Powers are strange things, she thought, after the two had stopped talking about anything important. Lots of people have them, so it wasn’t strange that everyone but Alex had powers. As she thought over each person's power, she realized that she might be the most powerful person in the room.

Well, actually, Maria accidentally almost killed Eliza, and John could go anywhere he knew the location of. And Hercules can become invisible, which is a useful power.

All of them had strong powers, she thought after a moment. All of them except for Alex. 

From everything she had heard about Alex, it seemed that he was a constant ball of energy. Earlier that day, Lafayette jokingly had complained about how Alex never slept and would text him at three in the morning with an essay he wanted Lafayette’s opinion on. 

Peggy wondered what life would be like if nobody had powers. What would she be? Would she be insignificant, always in the shadows of her sisters? 

And what would her sisters do? Eliza always liked children, Peggy mused. Maybe she would have been a teacher. Angelica would probably be a politician, as she had wanted to be one for a long time, and they had the connections that would make it easier.

What would the others be? What would Alex be?

Well. In a world where no one had powers, Alex would be doing the same thing as in this one.   
“Kickin’ ass…” Peggy whispered.

“Is she awake?” Hercules asked. 

Peggy didn’t move.

“Nah, probably just sleep talking.” 

“Looks like it.”

Tired from all her intense thinking, and from being a high schooler, Peggy rolled into the warmth of Angelica's side and went back to sleep. 

 

Theo accepted the coffee that Aaron offered and leaned against him.

“Just checked my email. We’ve got permission to bring in Angelica, as long as she’s okay with it.” She said between sips.

“Great. Are we doing that today?”

“Maybe. Not now though.”

“Of course.”

Theo turned around to kiss Aaron. She pulled away from the kiss smiling. He ran a hand over her face gently. 

“We’re going to solve this, you know? Everything’s going to be fine.”

He nodded. “Everyone’s going to be fine.”

 

 

Samuel Seabury sighed as he looked over his notes. Clearly the restaurant wasn’t the place to get Maria, at least not alone. He had barely made it out without getting caught, and the King would have been so disappointed. He might not have even gotten rescued, as it wasn’t his first screw up.

As is, having to tell the others that he hadn’t gotten Maria had been… brutal. Samuel touched his left shoulder gently. Good thing he was right handed. 

Maria’s powers were so much stronger than his. He was only able to control someone without eye contact after staring into their eyes for a long time, and the control wasn’t as good. Samuel was so weak. 

He wished he was stronger. 

Maybe at the end of this he would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! comments fuel and ~inspire~ me, so how about leaving one?   
> :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We (kinda) meet George Washington, and Angelica rewinds to see what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey just a heads up that there's some strongly hinted at violence but it's just strongly hinted at 
> 
> also!! i'm on break right now so you guys should expect a chapter before friday/saturday because i have more freetime and because i really like the next one
> 
> also also i believe this chapter is longer than the other ones so yay! all of them are at least 1000 words but i think this one is like 2000? don't quote me on that lol

 

Theo was currently working. Aaron sat across from her, typing something into his laptop.

 

It was twelve forty-five, meaning that in just fifteen short minutes, the others would come and Angelica would rewind. They had planned that together, they would take notes on what Angelica said. Then Theo would check on all of the others powers, especially Maria and Peggy. 

 

A knock on the door of their office startled both of them.

 

“Come in!” Theo called quickly. “It’s unlocked.”   
  


A tall, dark-skinned man entered the room. “Theodosia, Aaron.”

 

“Sir.” Aaron nodded to him before clicking something on his laptop and shutting the lid. 

 

The man’s name was George Washington. Theo and Aaron’s boss. 

 

“As the email said, I’ll be here while the guests are here.”  
  
“Yes, of course.”  
  


A women with blonde hair knocked on the opened door and poked her head around the corner.

 

“The guests are here, behind me. Are you guys ready for them?”

  
“We are.” Aaron nodded.

 

“Great.” She stepped aside and let the others in. “I’ll see you guys later then, and if you’re too busy, call the desk and we’ll get someone to escort them out.”

  
“Thank you.” Washington smiled at the woman before getting up and closing the door behind her.

 

‘The others’, or Angelica, Eliza, Peggy, Maria, John, Alex, Hercules, and Lafayette, all found places to sit in the office. It was cramped, but they had managed to fit enough chairs. The Schuyler sisters sat together on the couch that had been in Theo and Aaron’s office since the day the office became theirs. All of their visitors looked around.

 

Washington turned back to the room and spoke to their visitors. “Thank you for coming. My name is George Washington, and I run this NYCSMP.”

  
“Nice to meet you. I’m curious, what am I going to be doing here?” Angelica asked. “I know that I’ll be rewinding, but to where? And when?”

  
“Great question. Here,” Washington picked up the clearly labeled (FOR ANGELICA S.- TIME AND PLACE DETAILS AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFO) folder sitting on Theo’s desk and handed to it Angelica. She opened it, looked through it, and pulled out two slips of paper. One paper contained the where and the when, and the other was a picture of Samuel Seabury. 

 

Angelica stared at the picture, taking in the wavy dark red hair and ice-blue eyes. She nodded. 

  
“Alright. I’m going to rewind now. When I come back, it might take me a bit to get grounded again, based on how long I’m following him. How long should I follow him?”

 

“Until now, if you can.”

  
“Alright.” Angelica hugged both her sisters and leaned back.

  
  
  


It hadn’t taken that long for Angelica to get back to the place she needed to be. Currently, she was sitting in the chair directly across from Samuel. He was reading a book about powers while eating. When he talked to the staff of the restaurant, he was carefully not making eye contact. Probably worried about accidentally compelling them and causing a scene.

 

Angelica checked to see the title of the book, and saw that it was apparently called A History of Powers- How Magic has Shaped our Civilization.

 

“Some records say that how the warriors of olden times had received their strength from others. Not in the way that mimics do, but instead by pulling the life from their competitors and using it as their own. These warriors were the most feared, and rarely lost their battles.” Angelica read aloud to herself. She always had learned best when listening to something. 

 

Samuel put the book down and Angelica turned, seeing that Maria was near them.

Maria placed the bill for the man’s dinner on the table, smiling at him. Angelica knew where this was going from some of what Maria and Theo had said. 

 

_ “You can just bring the bill up to the front when you’re done! Have a good evening!” _

 

_ “Hey,” _

 

_ “Yes?” _

 

Samuel made eye contact with Maria and then said  _ “You’re a very pretty woman.” _

 

_ “Thank you,”  _

 

_ “Would you sit down? We can chat a while.” _

  
Maria sat down across from Samuel as she stared into his eyes. 

 

_ “Of course.” _

 

_ “Yes, that’s good. And as I said, you’re a very pretty woman. Probably smart, too. And powerful, from what I’m told. Would you like to work for me?” _

_  
_ _“Yes.”_

 

_ “Great. Would you like to follow me? _ ” Samuel stood up slowly, making sure that Maria was still staring into his eyes. 

 

_ “Let’s go,”  _

 

Angelica heard Maria’s watch going off and saw how Maria had looked away and snapped out of the trance she was in. It made Angelica kind of sick, seeing how easily Maria had been swayed. 

 

It would probably be a lot less dangerous in a world without powers. 

 

Angelica watched as Samuel hit Maria and how he had ran away. She followed.

 

Samuel ran out the front door of the restaurant, looking over his shoulder. There were some people following him. 

  
Samuel pulled out a phone as he ran and called someone. 

 

_ “Please, Lee,”  _ Angelica made sure to remember that someone named ‘Lee’ was involved.

_ “The plan didn’t work it didn’t work it didn’t work I’m being chased. Yes. Yes. No. She broke the eye contact. An alarm went off. No- Shit!”  _ The others were gaining on him. One had thrown something at him.

 

 _“No, it was hers. Ah- please! Move the ca- what? No! But I’m one of his favorites!”_ Samuel was one of some man’s favorites? Maybe their boss?  
_“You- You’re not moving the car? Unlock it then, open the doors, get it ready! I’m almost there! I can see you- oh, thank God!”_

 

Samuel said the last part to the man sitting in the driver's seat. He glared at Samuel as Samuel slid into the car, shutting the door quickly. 

 

_ “Lee, thank God.”  _ Samuel was shaking slightly and breathing hard. He pulled a water bottle from a bag on the floor and drank as Lee smoothly pulled the car out of where it was parked and started to drive. Angelica looked around, keeping track of where they were while listening to the conversation.

 

_ “Sam, you keep pulling this shit and there won’t be a rescue team next time.” _

 

_ “What? But-” _

_  
_ _“No buts. Your constant fuck ups put the rest of us in danger. We need all of us to get this job done, but we need you the least. Got it?”_

 

_ “Yes.” _

_  
_ _“Good. King want’s to speak to you when we get back. He’s mad,”_ Lee warned. 

Angelica crawled across the center console and sat on the dashboard to get a better look at Lee. 

 

Lee’s eyes were dark brown, almost black. His hair was clearly dyed blond-- Angelica could see that he had brown roots. 

 

_ “While he be wanting to be speaking to me right away?” _

 

Lee laughed. 

 

_ “You wanna desert? I wouldn’t blame you. He’s pissed.” _

 

_ “What?”  _ Samuel sputtered. Angelica floated back to him to get a good look at his expression. He looked terrified.  _ “Desert? I would never. And you didn’t answer my question.” _

 

Angelica looked out the window to see their surroundings, but it was dark and she 

couldn’t really see anything. She sighed. She’d have to rewind again and track them from the outside of the car to get a good look.

 

_ “Yes, he wants to see you right away.” _

 

_ “Great.” _

After that, they both stopped talking. Angelica leaned outside of the car and saw that they were crossing a bridge over a river. The water was dark, but the bridge was lit up and Angelica recognized it. 

 

Angelica leaned back into the car.

 

They drove for another ten minutes, according to the time displayed on the front of the car, before the Lee stopped the car.

 

_ “Get out. We’re here.” _

_  
_ _“I know that.”_

 

Samuel and Lee made their way out of the car. Samuel was shaking slightly. His suit was crumpled from the running, Angelica noticed. That and the shaking didn’t look very good compared to Lee’s swagger.

 

Angelica looked around as they walked. They had parked in some underground parking garage. The area was brightly lit, with no shadows in the corners. They crossed the room quickly before climbing a set of stone steps.

 

A woman with dark, long hair and a red blouse greeted them at the top of the steps.

 

_ “King is waiting for you in Room Seven, Mr. Seabury.” _

 

Samuel nodded.  _ “Thank you, Nancy.” _

 

Lee didn’t respond to Nancy, instead turning to Samuel.  _ “I’ll be in my apartment.” _

 

Samuel waved at him as he left, but Lee must not have seen, as he didn’t look back. Samuel started to walk. He walked past Nancy to a set of doors and opened them. Angelica looked around and saw that from where he entered, there were three other hallways. Samuel turned down the central one, not bothering to look at the labels on the doors. 

 

Samuel had a kind of look to the way he walked, Angelica thought. Like he knew exactly where he was going but didn’t like it one bit. 

 

People were walking all around them, each wearing something red. A man coming from the opposite direction stopped and waved to Samuel.

 

_ “Hey, Sam! You’re back! How’d the mission go?” _

 

Samuel rolled his eyes.  _ “Ben, you’re a high enough rank here to know exactly what happened. You know how it went.” _

 

Ben, the other man, laughed.  _ “Nah. See, you guys only just got back and Charles has only told King. I’ve heard rumors, though. So she got away?” _

 

_ “She got away. And I’m supposed to head to Room Seven now.” _

 

Ben’s eyes went wide.  _ “Shit, man! You should’ve told me that right away, I don’t want to keep you. Or keep him waiting.” _

 

_ “I know.”  _ Samuel looked miserable.

 

Ben leaned in and pulled Samuel into a hug. Angelica leaned in closer until she was basically floating inside of the two men. That was the only reason she could hear the conversation.

 

_ “If it’s that bad, I’ve got a place in Arizona I could send you to.” _

 

_ “I’m not deserting.” _

 

_ “Tell me that later.” _

 

_ “I will. See you later, Ben.” _

 

_ “See you later.” _

_  
_ Samuel continued his walk towards the mysterious Room Seven as Angelica became more afraid of what they were up against.

 

Samuel stopped in front of a door with a bronze-colored plate on it that read ‘SEVEN’ in a fancy font. He knocked.

 

_ “Come in!”  _ A voice from inside called.

 

Seabury opened the door and walked into the darkness.

  
  
  
  
  


Angelica came back to awareness slowly. She stretched, rolling her shoulders back as her eyes fluttered open.

 

“You with us?” Peggy asked.

 

“Not quite yet, see the way she looks like she’s half awake.” Eliza responded.

 

Angelica sat up. “I’m back.”

 

“What happened?” Washington asked.

 

Angelica looked around the room, blinking as her eyes focused on each person. Then she saw Alex and Maria, sitting in chairs next to each other, and stood up faster than she should have. Stumbling, she shuffled over to them.

 

Angelica put one hand on each of their shoulders.

 

“You are in so… much… danger.”

 

Then she collapsed.

  
  
  


Angelica woke up again, this time lying down on the ugly couch in Theo and Aaron’s office. Eliza and Peggy were sitting anxiously at her side, while Theo, Aaron, and Washington paced the room. Alex was sitting on a chair that was really for one with John, leaning against him. Hercules and Lafayette sat together on two separate chairs pushed to be closer to each other.

 

Angelica looked around. 

 

“What’s going on?” She asked.

 

Eliza’s head snapped up to stare at her. “Don’t you remember?”

 

Angelica thought for a moment. “I rewound, then I woke up, then I shouted at Alex and Maria, then I passed out?”

 

“Yes.” Washington nodded from across the room. The group that had been standing had all stopped pacing. “Do you remember anything from your rewind?”

 

Angelica slowly sat up and nodded. “Yeeah. I remember everything. It’s just that it isn’t a good idea to walk or move very much after coming back from a long rewind.”

 

“That makes sense. Are you ready to tell us what you saw, or do you need to rest more?”

  
“No, I’d like to tell you guys. It’s better if I say right away.”

  
“Alright then. Theodosia, if you don’t mind, please take everyone to Martha’s office.”

 

“What?” Theo asked, surprise evident in her voice. She had planned on helping take the notes.

 

“We’re already behind schedule and we still want to get the analysis of Maria and Peggy’s powers done. You’re the only one who can do that. Phone the office, tell them to get someone to help you take your notes. Aaron and I will take the notes on Angelica’s rewind.”

 

“Yes, sir.” Theo sighed. “Come on guys. Let’s go.” 

 

The others left, following Theo out and into the halls of the NYCSMP.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I love comments so please leave me one to tell me what you think!
> 
> Happy holidays!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Martha [Washington]!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 KUDOS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT  
> Thank you guys so much!!

After being told that she wouldn’t get to hear Angelica’s recounting of what had happened, Theo couldn’t help but to feel a little, well, pissed. But whatever. It wasn’t like she’d never get to hear what had happened, it just wouldn’t be firsthand. 

  
Whatever. Sure. 

 

And even as Angelica’s warning (You guys are in danger) rung in her ears, Theo couldn’t do anything but hope what they found wouldn't be catastrophic. If Samuel or any of the others, because there  _ had  _ to be others, went after Alex, what would he do? Theo shook her head. Alex didn’t have powers, how would he be able to even fight if they attacked him?

 

Agh. Sometimes Theo wondered what life would be like without powers.

 

“So, I’ve seen her rewind before,” Theo began as she lead Eliza, Peggy, Maria, Alexander, Hercules, Lafayette, and John down the long hallway towards Martha’s office. Martha and George had been married since before George had been promoted to leading the NYCSMP. 

 

“Well, once, I guess. But the time I saw her do it, she wasn’t confused or disoriented at all when she came back. So why this time?”

  
“Well, it depends on how long she’s gone and how far back she goes.” Peggy answered. 

 

“Normally she only goes back a couple hours, or maybe a day. There was this one time that after finding out about her powers, this biographer had paid Angie to rewind and see what the person had done.” Eliza said, speeding up her walking she she’d be standing next to Theo.

 

“Really?” Alex asked. “What happened?”

 

“She went back, jeez, about two hundred years? Yeah. She followed the person for about two weeks then-time and came back really, really, disoriented. She wasn’t herself for about a week. Dad got really angry at the guy, but she was paid well and didn’t mind after the fact.”

 

“Huh. That’s cool. Alright, here we are.” Theo stopped in front of Martha’s office and knocked on the door.

 

“Who is it?”

 

“Theodosia Bartow and guests. Mr. Washington should have messaged you?”

 

“He has. Come in!”

 

Theo opened the door and walked in, the group following a few feet behind her.

 

Martha’s office was huge, or at least bigger than Theo’s and Aaron’s. It was all tiled floor, with a little area of chairs near Martha’s desk. Three large bookcases lined one wall. At the back of the room there was a sink, a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a coffee maker. Next to the kitchenette there was a door that lead into a bathroom. Only the best for the second in command. 

 

Martha herself was sitting at the desk. Martha smiled and stood when the group entered, running a hand over her curly red hair like it was an old habit. Considering the fact that Martha was basically immortal, it probably was. The only thing that could kill Martha was herself.

 

After Theo’s old fiancee, she and Martha had had a long talk. Because of Theo’s curiosity, Martha had explained her powers. According to Martha, she could age and de-age herself. And like a regular person, Martha loved. Everytime she fell in love, she would match her aging to them. Eventually they would die, and after about a decade she would de-age herself back down to about twenty.

  
  


Martha had been second in command for the NYCSMP for a long, long time. She never wanted to be the head, though. She had said that ‘new ideas were the best for a group of this sort’ and that having the same person in charge for such a long time wouldn’t be right. 

 

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Martha, the second in command here. And according to so many people who’ve worked here, I’m also the entire office’s honorary mom. Come in, take a seat.”

 

Theo stayed standing and let all the others sit.

 

“Theo, I’ll help you with this bunch. George said that he wanted you to take notes and run some tests on Maria and Peggy? I’m afraid he didn’t specify who was who, though. Would you guys mind telling me who you are? And what your powers are, if you have them?”

 

Everyone introduced themselves, and Martha paid close attention. She nodded to herself when everyone had finished and waved at Peggy.

 

“Stand, stand. We’ll do some quick tests for you, first.”

 

“Sure. Okay.” Peggy stood nervously. Martha directed her to stand in the middle of the room. Theo pulled out her laptop and sat down in Martha’s chair.

 

“Now, I’ve already seen the basic notes on who you are and what you can do. Can you please shift into your most practiced person?”

  
Peggy nodded and started to sway back and forth. She had found that it helped her better. 

 

At first, nothing changed, and Peggy was worried. Then she started changing and she knew it would be okay.

 

“ _ There we go. Okay. Th _ is is E _ liza. I st _ ill having _ problems with her voice but  _ I’m mo _ stly okay with it. I’ve practiced her the most, I think.” _

_  
_ Martha nodded. “Very good! Eliza, would you mind coming over here for comparison?”

  
Eliza stood up and walked over to stand next to Peggy.

 

Martha made Eliza read something out of a book from her bookshelf and then made Peggy say the same thing, before turning to Theo.

 

“Theo, make sure you have this. Her eyes aren’t right, but they’re the only thing wrong. They give it away completely, however. Her voice isn’t right either but seems to be right more often than it is wrong. Good, good!”   
  


They spent the rest of the afternoon in Martha’s office, with her asking questions and getting answers from different people. After she had focused on Peggy, Martha had turned her attention to Maria. 

 

Her statement on Maria had been that she was ‘Dangerous, dangerous. You better use your powers for could. Now, your powers are mostly focused on seduction, so don’t think that they’ll work on everyone. Anyone who isn’t attracted to women won’t be swayed. You’re doing a good job, though, now that you’re not unconsciously casting out and affecting people.’

 

After Maria, she decided to go over the others and see what they could do.

 

For Eliza, she said that her powers ‘Are stable! Good! I don’t see why you would have problems with them at all. Still, don’t depend on them for everything and be careful of what you do with them. If you do make someone anxious or agitated, be careful, there might be long lasting effects.’

 

She had told Lafayette that he could ‘Detect all lies! Very good, very good! And lie convincingly as well. I’d like to see what would happen if we found someone with your powers and had you lie to each other. Would you get away with it, because of your lying skills, or not, because of their detecting skills? Theo, highlight that, we should come back to that.”

  
To Hercules she said ‘Must have won every game of hide and seek as a kid. Your powers are interesting. Never met someone who could share their powers quite like you can. I wonder if someone who can repel other powers would cancel that out? Theo, mark that as well, we can have Aaron visit that.’

 

After John had shown Martha his powers she had nodded, and said that ‘You should help all your friends with those powers. Make sure everyone gets to where they need to be safely, depending on what we find from George and Aaron. Interesting that you can do it without moving, most people I’ve met need to make movements to channel their powers for anything to happen at all.’

 

Alex stayed seated the entire time, watching as Martha called each of his friends up and directed them to do something before having them sit back down. As time passed, he would fiddle with the chair, picking at the edge of the seat where the cloth was starting to fray.

 

At the end of their visit, Martha smiled at the group. 

 

“It was nice meeting you all! John, could you take everyone to where they need to be? I’d like to talk to Alex for a bit though, so I can have Theo text you to come back when it’s time. Does that work with everyone?”

 

The group looked around a little uncertainly.

 

Alex sighed. “It’s fine. John, I’ll text you when I need to go.”

 

“Alright, then.” 

 

Alex smiled reassuringly at John, who smiled back almost as a reflex.

 

Then John opened a door and the rest of them all went through it, leaving Alex, Theo, and Martha still in Martha’s office.

 

“Theo, would you mind going back to Aaron, George, and Angelica?”

 

Seeing that she was being dismissed, Theo nodded and left.

 

Martha sat in one of the chairs near Alex. “So, you don’t have powers.”

  
“I don’t.” Alex looked at the ceiling.

 

“It’s fine that you don’t, you know.”

 

“What?” He looked at Martha. 

 

“I said it’s fine that you don’t have powers.”

 

“Okay then.” Alex rolled his eyes.

 

Martha rolled her eyes right back at him. “You don’t think it’s alright that you don’t have powers.”

 

Alex sighed. “Well, I think that it’d be easier for me to make a difference if I did.”

  
Martha shook her head. “It isn’t. Trust me. What powers would make it easier to make a difference with.”

 

Alex groaned. “I don’t know, powers of convincing? Like Maria or that Seabury guy.”

 

Martha laughed. “Well, you might say that, but when you think about it, is it really making a difference if you’re forcing people what to think or what to do? They might believe it for a short time, but when that fades off, they won’t want to think it anymore! Even if it lasts a lifetime, they won’t really be thinking it.”

 

“Oh.”

  
“Alex, I’m older than America.”

 

“What?” Alex asked, startled.

 

“My powers make me basically immortal. I am the only thing that can kill me.”

 

“Oh. Wait, older than America as a country or America as a big mass of land?”

 

“As a country. I was around thirty when the Revolutionary War started. I’ve seen a lot. I married my first husband in 1750. I was nineteen.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“I married my second husband in 1759. He was a general in the army and the first president.”

  
“Oh.”

  
“I’ve fallen in love so many times, both romantically and not, like with close friends.”

  
“How do you do it?” Alex asked. “How do you keep going after someone you loved died?”

  
Martha laughed softy. “There’s always someone or something that needs you, Alex. Sometimes it’s a person, sometimes it’s an animal, sometime’s it’s just a plant. But they need you all the same. They need you to keep living. And helping others live is so much more important when you see how little their lives last.”

 

“Don’t you get tired? Of mortals and all the bullshit we spew?”

 

“I’m not a god. But of course I do. Sometimes I’m so, so tired. But you have to keep going.” Martha stood up, and Alex quickly followed. 

 

“I have to go over the notes Theo took, but you can stay if you want.”

  
“No, I should go. I’ll text John.”

 

“Alright, but don’t be afraid of coming over.”

 

“I won’t.”

 

“Don’t be afraid of taking a leap, either. You guys don’t live very long, so don’t take what time you have for granted. I’ve seen people waste so much time.”

 

“I won’t.”

 

John appeared, stepping through the doorway he created. “Hey, Alex. You said you were ready?”

 

“I am. Hey, John?”

 

“Yeah?” John asked, slightly tilting his head to the side.

 

Alex always thought he was cute when he did that. Well, Alex always thought John was cute. But especially when he did that.

 

“Let’s go out for dinner tonight, I wanna talk about some stuff.”

 

“Sure. Where do you want to go?”

 

“That Mexican place? With the giant burritos?”

 

John laughed. “Sure, let’s go there. Right now?”

 

“Why not? YOLO, as the kids these days say.”

 

John laughed again, harder this time. “Never say YOLO again, Alex. But sure, I’m hungry. Bye Martha. Nice to meet you.”

 

“You too.”

 

Alex waved to Martha as well. “Thanks, Martha. I’ll see you later, I think.”

 

Martha smiled. “Have a good time.  Bye, Alex.”

 

Alex and John stepped through the door and out to the other side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the internet was down for a couple hours today and I wrote even more stuff so I'm thinking i'll update on friday and on sunday, maybe. no promises tho other than friday/saturday posting
> 
> aNYWAY comment and tell me what you guys think!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria has another encounter with Seabury, and there's some good news with Alex and John.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey it's me with another chapter! I might update again before next friday/saturday, but no promises. ALSO like there's some attempted stealing of a person? and I don't know really anything about what to do with giving warnings but if you think there's something that i should warn about then PLEASE tell me! you guys are important to me!

Maria knew the woman who was currently freaking out in the uncrowded corner of the popular cafe very well.

  
The woman had blonde hair that was cropped close to her head. She wore a mint-green blouse and white shorts.

 

Her name was Mary. She had gone to highschool with Maria and they still were pretty close. Maria and Mary never really planned when they wanted to hang out, but they often ran into each other. 

 

Maria couldn’t see Mary’s kid, so she must have left him with her husband.

 

Sometimes Maria was envious of how together Mary’s life was. She tried to ignore it.

 

Maria looked to her wrist to see that her bracelet was still turned on. It was, and it was set to repel other's powers as well as not let her cast out if her power was only radiating in small amounts. Basically, she’d have to be intentionally casting and pushing power into it if she wanted to do anything, and she wouldn’t be easily affected by other people’s powers.

 

“Mary?” Maria asked. “Are you okay?”

 

Mary had been facing the wall and violently shaking. She spun around at the sound of Maria’s voice, knocking over a table. A flower vase and three plates crashed to the ground and shattered. A barista called out angrily from the front counter.

 

“M-m-m-ma-r-r-ia!!” Mary stuttered. Mary didn’t normally stutter. She pushed aside another table, letting the flower vase on that crash and shatter as well. Mary grabbed Maria’s shoulders hard.

 

“Mary?”

  
“C-c-c-ome. F-f-f-fo-ol-ow.” 

  
“Mary?”

  
“What’s going on?” Someone asked.

 

Mary screamed at the sound of the other person’s voice and started to pull at 

Maria. She pulled her towards the back of the cafe.

 

“What are you doing?” Maria cried out. “Mary, what’s going ON with you?”

 

Mary grabbed Maria’s shoulders again, twisting the pair off them so they were parallel with the large back window. Mary was still shaking. For one moment, she threw her hands off of Maria and backed away, but then she grabbed Maria again. 

 

Mary pushed them both backwards. They fell through the window and landed in the street. Broken glass fell with them, covering them in it. Maria screamed again.

 

Maria felt hands on her arm and looked to see who it was. 

  
It was the man from the restaurant. Samuel Seabury. 

 

This time, two people were with him, a man with blond hair and woman with copper colored hair. 

 

Samuel started to pull her and she screamed once again. Maria’s thoughts wandered for just a moment- she was doing a lot of screaming today, her throat would be sore tomorrow- before coming back to what she was doing and yanking her arm out of Samuel’s grasp. She switched her bracelet to block other people’s powers as much as she could and to let her powers come through as clear as they could.

 

Then she turned to stare at Samuel, trying to channel her powers as best as she could.

“Hey. You should go away.” She said, saying the first thing she thought of to make him leave her alone.

 

“Okay.” Samuel nodded in agreement and turned to get into a black car parked in one of the spots right next to the cafe.

 

“Hey, wait!” The blond man didn’t try to stop Samuel, instead turning to Maria. She stood quickly. 

 

“You too. Go with him.”

 

“Sure.” 

 

The copper haired woman ran at Maria as the other man walked away and bent over Mary’s crumpled form. The woman tackled Maria, pushing them both onto the ground. Maria felt the broken glass on her back and yelled from the pain. She struggled against the woman while she spoke and tried to see where Mary was.

 

“Get off of me!”

 

“Not a chance.”

Maria remembered that because she had powers of seduction or whatever, she could only sway people attracted to her gender, and it looked like the woman wasn’t.

 

The woman kept Maria pinned down while she reached for something in her coat pocket when suddenly she came flying off of Maria.

 

A man was there. Maria recognized him as George Washington, Theo and Aaron’s boss. Why was he here?

  
Then Theo was there as well, sticking out a hand to Maria and helping her get up. Theo lead Maria to a large van.

 

The back of it was open and Maria could see at the very front there were two rows of seats, but the back was large and empty. There were some machines in the back and a large bench covered in plastic.

 

“Here, Maria, sit- no- I don’t know.  Some of these guys can help you. There’s glass in her back and arms, I think.” She directed the last part to some of the people in the van. 

  
“What’s going on?””

“Someone called the police when they saw what was happening at the cafe. They directed it to us, even though they can mostly deal with it. We showed up. Maria, please, relax. We’ll question you later.”

 

“Where’s Mary?” Maria couldn’t see her.

 

“Who?” Theo turned to look out at the sidewalk.

 

“My friend, in green, where is she? She was shaking, she had pushed me out the window. Where’s Mary?”

  
Maria scanned the sidewalk as well before seeing that the black car was driving away.

 

Theo swore as she saw the car. “Shit. Okay. Maria, these guys’ll take care of you.” Theo sprinted away.

 

Maria let herself be lead into the van.

  
  
  
  


After Maria had been attacked, Theo had recommended that they stay together and not travel alone. Maria was still at NYCSMP, so she couldn't come, but the rest of the group gathered at Eliza and Angelica’s apartment for another sleepover. John had picked up Chinese food for them all and had brought them all to the two sisters apartment.

 

“So,” Eliza announced. “Alex told me that John and him went on a date yesterday night! Tell us about it!”

 

Alex laughed and blushed, leaning against John. John put an arm around him.

 

“We did.”

 

Peggy squealed and Lafayette and Hercules high-fived. Angelica smiled at John.

 

She knew that, deep-down, Alex and John would end up together. For the sake of her heart, she had hoped that she would be completely and entirely over Alex by then.

 

She wasn’t. 

 

But even so, she wanted them to be happy. John’s her friend, and a good one, no matter how short they had known each other. At least Angelica will still get to see Alex, even if she’s not quite sure how good that will be.

 

Still, she raised her glass of coke (no alcohol with Peggy around, they had deiced) to the two men and prayed that her smile didn’t look fake.

 

“To you guys!”

 

“To you guys!” The others echoed. John and Alex laughed, both blushing. 

 

Later that night, Angelica found herself sitting next to John while the group watched a movie together. 

 

Angelica leaned over to John and whispered, “Come with me to the kitchen. Let’s get more snacks for everyone.”

 

John looked to Alex, who was leaning on him, and carefully got up. Together they went to the kitchen.

 

“What do you want me to help you get?”

 

“I’m not sure. You know the boys better than I do, so get something you think they’d like.”

John crossed his arms. “Alright. Well, since we’re spontaneous besties or whatever, I feel like there’s something you want to say.”

 

“Yeah, actually.” Angelica turned to face John, holding the two two-liter bottles she had got from the fridge closer to her chest. “I wanted to say that I’m happy for you.”

  
“Thanks?”

 

“Even though I haven’t known you long, you’re still my friend and I want you to be happy. So I hope that you two are happy together.” She put down the bottles and hugged John, and after a moment of surprise, he hugged her back.

 

“Me too.”

  
“GUYS IF YOU’RE GETTING SNACKS THEN COME BACK ALREADY I DON’T WANT TO REWIND THE MOVIE FOR YOU!” Peggy shouted from the living room.

 

Angelica and John laughed. 

 

“We’re coming!” He called, and picked up the chips and cookies he was carrying. Angelica picked up the bottles again, and together, they went back to the rest of their friends.

During the rest of the movie, Angelica would occasionally look over and see John and Alex curled up on on each other.  And she hopes that they’ll be happy together, but more than that, she hopes that John will be happy.

Because if she has to be honest, John is like another sibling to her by now.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I read all the comments so tell me what you think!
> 
> also like is there anything you guys think I should do with the description? I don't really like what it is right now but I don't have anything better to do with it? so like anything with that would be helpful!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The (early) morning after the sleepover, soda with Martha and Maria, pure fluff with Aaron and Theo, and the Schuyler Sister's + the Honorary Schuyler relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally I had another chapter instead of this one, but I've moved that to the next chapter. These guys deserve some fluff sometimes, and it also felt like I was moving the plot to fast.
> 
> this is also the last day of break for me, so I'm going back to updating on either friday or saturday again.

Lafayette woke up to the most obnoxious alarm he had ever heard going off. He sat up slowly with a groan.

“Who’s is it?”

Hercules, who was already awake and reading (A Midnight Dress, Lafayette noticed. He’d have to ask Hercules if it was a good book.) shook his head. “Not mine. I don’t use an alarm.”

John yawned, not being quite awake yet. He pulled Alex closer to him which would have woken him up if not for the alarm. “Not mine.”

Eliza, being the angel that she was, had been looking around for a certain yellow phone case as soon as she heard the alarm go off. 

“It’s Peggy’s. Wait- here we go. Got it.” Eliza silenced the alarm, which caused everyone in the room to let out a sigh of relief.

Frowning, Angelica pushed Peggy’s sleeping form gently. “It’s her alarm, and she’s not even waking up for it.” Still not waking up, Angelica shook Peggy with a little more force.

“Agh? What?”

“Peg, your alarm went off.” John told the groggy Peggy.

“Shit. Hand me that, that’s only the first one. I’ve got like fifteen more.”

“Why?” Lafayette asked.

“Because for me, it takes me until like eight to do my homework and eat and then I browse the internet until like after midnight and then I wake up at six thirty.”

“Oh.”

“Wait,” Alex waved one hand groggily. Whenever he remembered to sleep, it always took him a little while in the mornings to be fully aware. “What time is it?”

Peggy checked the time on her phone. “Six forty five.” She grinned. “Are we going to go back to sleep or nah?”

Lafayette immediately laid back down. “We’re going to sleep for at least two more hours.”

Angelica and Eliza both laughed and laid down as well. Slowly, John and Alex both laid down, with Alex leaning against John’s chest. Peggy put her phone back on its charger before laying down as well.

Hercules stayed as he was, reading his (very good) book and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.

 

“Maria! Good to see you again!” Martha opened her office door with a wide smile. “I’ve already heard about what happened, and I’ve heard that you’re going to stay here for a little bit.” 

Unsure, Maria stayed in the hallway of the NYCSMP. Martha waved her in.

“Sit down wherever you like.”

Maria took a seat awkwardly, placing her large red bag on her lap.

“You’ve been here before, but you’ve only seen the main room. In the back, that door,” She pointed. “Leads to the bathroom. There’s two other doors in the bathroom, which is a really inconvenient setup, but those doors lead to small bedrooms.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted them, but that was the only place they could put them. Crazy, I know. Now. Would you like something to drink? I’ve got coffee, tea, soda..?”

“Uh, soda would be nice. Is there coke?”

“There is.” Martha pulled two bottles of coke out of the mini-fridge. She handed one to Maria before sitting down across from her.

“Do you have any questions?” Martha asked. “Or anything you want to talk about?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Maria pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. She hated being this nervous. Normally she excelled in social situations. “Why does everyone call you Martha, instead of Mrs. something?”

Martha nodded. “Because I don’t have a last name. I used to, but then I married, and it changed, and I married again, and it changed again. I’ve lived most of my life in a time period where women are expected to change their last names. So I’m just Martha.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that.”

“Isn’t that why you asked that question?” Martha asked with a smile.

Maria laughed, feeling more and more relaxed as the conversation went on.

 

Aaron kissed the top of Theo’s head, and she looked up. Theo’s face, which had been frowning at her laptop screen, broke into a wide smile.

“Hey! How was class?”

Theo rolled her eyes and slumped back onto her desk, her forehead hitting her keyboard. “Awful. Why, oh why, did we choose to be in NYCSMP at the same time as we did school?”

“Because you love it.” 

“That’s true.” Theo stood up, pushing her chair back into her desk and wrapping her arms around Aaron. “I also love you.”

Aaron smiled. “I hope so. I love you too.”

Theo pulled out of their embrace and stretched. “We should go get dinner.”

“Somewhere nice?” Aaron asked.

“Nah! Let’s just… walk in a vague direction until we find somewhere good.”

Nodding, Aaron pulled his coat off the hook where it had been hanging and slipped it on. 

“That works. I could use some spontaneity.”

 

  
“That’s really how you guys became friends? Jeez, I wish it was that easy.” Peggy sighed, looked at her drying sparkly yellow nails.

“You’re just jealous that you only have like, three friends.” Angelica said teasingly.  
“Hey! Hey, John, can I paint your nails?” Peggy pulled Eliza’s purse of nail polishes open completely and dumped it on the bed.

“Careful there, Peg.” Eliza warned. “Remember that time you got glitter glue on Angie’s bed?”

John snickered. “Really? Wow. And yeah, sure. What color nails?”

“During my emo phase, too. I screamed.”

“I think green would look- no, orange. Orange? Green?” Peggy pulled an orange and a green out of the pile and compared them to John’s hands. “What do you guys think?”

“I think that the orange is a good color for him.” Eliza commented.

“I agree.” Angelica took the orange from Peggy. “I’ll do it. Peg, your nails are still drying, careful.”

Peggy sighed and feel backward onto the bed but nodded. “C’est vrai.”

“You’re learning French in school?” John asked, translating it in his head to ‘That is true’ easily.

“Oui!”

“Do do you like it?”

“Meh.” Peggy shrugged.

“John, did you take French in school?” Eliza asked. 

“Uh-huh. I liked it enough, but I haven’t really used it that much.”

Angelica snorted. “Not even with Lafayette?”

“Not even with Laf.” John confirmed. “Him and Alex speak French as fast as they speak English. It’s hard to follow.”

“Speaking of, how are you and Alex?” Eliza asked with a smile. “He wouldn’t stop texting me after your date.”

“Things are going great! I really like him. It kind of sucks that we got together while this whole thing is going on, with the bad guys and whatever, but it’s better than nothing.”

Eliza gave Angelica a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. But Angelica just shrugged and smiled at John. 

“Hey, my hair’s getting out of it’s hair tie. Can one of you..?” John asked, rolling one shoulder and trying to get the hair out of his face without using his hands.

“I got it!” Peggy said cheerfully, popping up to sit up straight. “My nails are dry now!”

She moved to sit behind him, and pulled the hair tie fully out before running her hands through her hair. 

“I think I’m going to give you a braid. That alright?”

“That’s fine, as long as you don’t dye my hair or anything.”

“Damn, there goes my plans.” Peggy giggled. John snorted in response, and Eliza chuckled. Angelica snickered from where she was sitting in front of John.

Angelica finished with the orange on John’s left hand and moved to the right. Sure, she wasn’t with Alex romantically and he was, but it was getting easier every hour, practically, to lose her feelings for him.

Besides, John had opted to stay with the Sisters instead of hanging out with his actual boyfriend, which gave Angelica a little burning feeling inside when she thought about stealing her friend's boyfriend. Guilt, that was what it was.

It was nice, she decided. It was nice to just sit with her two sisters and her spontaneous best-friend and go through the thing that she and her sisters had done for years. Angelica tuned out the conversation that they were having, and just focused on John’s nails. 

And in that moment, she was content to just have life be as it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I read all the comments so don't be afraid to leave one! Also, PLEASE tell me if you see any errors or are confused, and I can fix it! 
> 
> I love all of you! See you guys on friday/saturday!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More bad stuff is thrown at Maria (ft. Nathan and Aaron)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey i don't know what to say 
> 
> but in other news there is one more chapter that was in my chapter plan (already written it) which means that i need to make a plan for chapters 16 and up and i think i know what i'm going to do but noooooot reaaaaaaally

 

“Maria, I’m sure you can just call in and tell them that you can’t-”

 

John was cut off by Maria’s exasperated sigh. 

 

“You’re not listening to me, John. I don’t get much vacation, or sick days, or whatever, and I used it already anyway. A friend was sick. I can’t lose my job, John.”

 

“It’s not safe!”

 

“I’ll be fine!” She waved her bracelet at him. “I’ve got this! It’s helped me already, I will be fine!” Maria put extra emphasis on the last three words.

 

“Fine. Fine. I’ll take you to work. But Maria, don’t go anywhere alone. Call me if you need to get picked up.” John caved in with a sigh.

 

“I will.”

 

John opened a doorway to the restaurant where Maria worked and the pair stepped through. Maria noticed the orange nail polish on John’s nails.

 

“If you get hurt, I won’t forgive myself, Maria. All of us heard Angie’s warning.”

  
“I know. I’ll be fine, really.”

 

The two hugged, even if it was a little awkward.

 

“I’ll be back to pick you up.”

 

“See you then.”

 

John stepped through the doorway, to where ever he needed to be and closed it. 

 

Maria turned away from where he had been standing and, with a wave at one of her coworkers, walked to the back room where she could drop her stuff. She was already in her uniform, so she didn’t need to change. She checked her bracelet to see if it was in the proper setting (it was). Maria pulled her hair into a black hair tie and checked her appearance in the large floor-length mirror one last time. 

 

An unfamiliar woman walked into the room. Maria could see her reflection in the mirror. The woman had short black hair and sparkly makeup, with lipstick that was very  _ very  _ red. 

 

“Hello! Are you new here?” She asked, putting on her customer service smile. “Because this area is specifically for employees.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize!”

 

Maria would be impressed by how easily she keeps her screaming internal, except she’s had to do it many times. How could the woman not notice the large EMPLOYEES ONLY sign on the door?

  
“Let me escort you out.” Maria crossed the room to open the door. The woman left, and she followed her, shutting the door behind and checking to see if the sign hadn’t fallen off the door or something. It hadn’t. 

 

“Excuse me, ma’am, but I was supposed to meet my date here? And he said to meet him out by the large rose bush? I looked, but I couldn’t find it and I’m worried he stood me up. Can you help me?”

 

“I’ll escort you.” Maria sighed. This woman had probably gotten stood up, how else could she miss the giant rose bush right by the back of the parking lot?

 

They passed the hostess, who looked curious as to why Maria was leaving.

 

“Don’t worry Vivian, I’m just showing this woman where the roses are, she’s meeting a date. I’ll be back quickly.”

 

“Of course.” Vivian narrowed her eyes slightly at the woman. “Don’t let it be like Josh.” She added lightly.

 

“I won’t.” 

  
As Maria lead the woman outside, she thought about what Vivian had said. Maria had never met Josh, as she was hired later on, but she had heard about him. An ex-girlfriend had come to the restaurant and had caused a scene outside until Josh went to check on it. Then she shot him. 

 

They had been told to be careful. And, actually, John had told her to be careful as well. Regretting her decision, she pointed at the roses by the back without moving any closer to them. 

 

“There they are, ma’am. I’ll be going back now.”

 

A group of people, around four, suddenly leaped from a parked car that she hadn’t seen in the dark. One of them grabbed Maria, then more came. She screamed but the sound was cut off abruptly when she felt her bracelet leave her wrist. 

 

She heard the door of the restaurant open and tried to see what was happening when she was forced into the car.

 

“Oh my g-” Vivian, definitely Vivian, shrieked before she was cut off as well.

 

Samuel Seabury was there in the car, and he stared into Maria’s eyes.

“You’re going to listen.”

 

Not being able to speak, Maria nodded. She only vaguely registered the car driving away.

  
  
  
  


Nathan put his spoon down when he heard the knock at his door. 

 

“Coming!” He shouted. Nathan opened the door and was pushed aside as a woman entered the room. 

 

“Hey!” He recognized her. Wasn’t she Maria, one of Alex’s-  _ standing at the door crying talking talking walking to the bedroom- _ Nathan shook the alternate world away. Wasn’t she one of Alex’s friends?

 

Alex had gone off to be with John. Nathan was happy for him, of course. He had thought that once they started dating Alex would stop complaining about how hot John was. Apparently Nathan had been wrong.

 

Maria was shaking. She hadn’t spoken yet. 

 

“Hey, are you okay?”

 

She turned quickly, knocking over a chair, and focused on Nathan. What was wrong with her eyes?

 

She rolled her shoulders- was she trying to be seductive? 

 

“Ex-ex-excuse m-me. I-s Al-l-ex he-r-r-re?”

 

Wait, wasn’t her powers seduction or something?

  
“No, sorry.”

 

“C-c-can yo-u sho-w-w-w me w-her-r-re he is-s?” Maria put a shaking hand on Nathan’s shoulder.

 

Nathan realized she was trying to seduce and sway him and almost laughed. Almost. Alex had told him about what Angelica had said, that him and Maria were in danger. And from what he had heard about Maria, this wasn’t what she was like at all. Okay. So all he needed to do was get Maria somewhere safe. Nathan pulled his phone from his pocket and called Aaron Burr.

 

“Sure, Maria, just stay there for a moment. Yes!” Aaron had answered his phone.

“Hello?”

  
“This is Nathan, text me.” Nathan had realized that maybe talking about his plan while right next to Maria wasn’t the best idea.

 

AARON BURR-

 

-Hello?

 

*maria is currently in my dorm room right now freaking the freak out and trying to seduce me or smth??? She wants alex

*she’s shaking and stuttering really really badly

 

-Shit

-Shit

-I’m on my way with another agent.

-Can you get her outside your building where we can pick her up?   
  


*sure sure

*ill work on that

  
  


“W-w-whe-r-re is A-l-l-ex?”

 

“On his way. Let’s go outside, so your…  Beauty can shine for everyone.”

  
Maria smiled at him, though the smile flickered with her shaking.

 

“Al-ll I n-n-ne-d is y-y-ou.”

 

“And all I need is you. Follow me.” Nathan took Maria’s hand and lead her away from the dorm room and to the elevator.

 

AARON BURR-

 

-We’re outside

-There are some other people who look like they’re waiting for someone/something. Be careful.

 

*i will be

 

Outside, Aaron and another person- agent?- run to meet Nathan and Maria. Aaron pulls Maria into his arms. Maria starts to stop shaking.

 

A group of people, maybe three or four, back away and get into a light gray car. They drive away.

 

And as they drive, all Nathan can see is horses, galloping away. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! What'd you guys think?


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really like this chapter idk also heathers is the best

“Having a long day?”

 

“Oh, lord, the longest. I’m on lunch break right now, can I come in, and like, chill?”

 

“Of course!”

  
Martha waved Theo towards a seat as she busied herself with the kitchenette.

 

“Coffee?”

 

“Please.”

 

Martha made coffee while Theo leaned back in the chair with her eyes closed. Once it was finished, she brought it over, giving one cup to Theo and keeping the other.

 

Theo took the coffee without opening her eyes and took a long drink. She sighed.

“Everyone in my wing is terrified. Maria was taken from the parking lot of a popular restaurant in the middle of the day. She was swayed to try and take Alex. Please, please, please tell me you guys have made big steps on the plan.”

  
“We have, actually. Did you know that they set up their evil base across the street from a Starbucks?”

 

“Really?” Theo sat up straighter and opened her eyes. She pulled her lunch from her bag.

 

“Yup. We’re going to send the team- still haven’t completely  decided who will be on that team yet, though- to the Starbucks as the first step. But anyway, this isn’t a meeting. Let’s not talk about work.”

 

“That would be nice. How’s Anna?”

  
Martha didn’t currently have any kids, but she had many descendants. She wasn’t able to keep track of all of them, of course, but Anna was currently one of the ones who lived the closest to her. She was also most likely the youngest, at seven years old. Martha didn’t hide her immortality, so all of the descendants she knew about knew about her.

 

“Anna’s doing great. She had to do a family tree project for all her living relatives and panicked because she wasn’t sure how to include me.”

 

“Aww, I want a kid one day.”

 

“That’s new! Last time I asked you said you never ever ever ever wanted a kid. What changed?” 

 

“Aaron.” Theo smiled lovingly when thinking of Aaron and twirled her fork in her pasta. “We’ve talked about getting married.”

  
Martha jokingly put a hand against her mouth, like surprised ladies would do in the old movies. She laughed. “Really? If you guys ever do, I better be invited to that wedding.”

  
“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Theo shrugged. “I mean, you’d go no matter what but we talked about having you stand in for Aaron’s mom.”

  
“I definitely wouldn’t mind, you know that. Now, have you put any thought to a theme?”

  
Theo spent the rest of her lunch break feeling peaceful and happy.  Surprisingly, it was easy to push away the horrors of the present for the hope of the future.

  
  
  


Alex leaned against John’s arm as the two of them lay in John’s bed. John’s roommate was out, so no one was there to interrupt the peace.

 

But themselves, of course.

 

“I like your nails.” Alex ran a finger lightly over John’s nail. “Peggy do this?”

  
“Nah, Angie. I like it too. The orange’s nice.”

 

“I should see if Eliza’ll paint mine too. Green, maybe? I know that Angelica has pink, Eliza has blue, and I’m pretty sure that Peggy has yellow. They’re all pretty possessive of their colors.”

  
“Mmm-hmm. I think Maria has red.”

 

“Yeah, it’s her aesthetic.”

  
“What colors would Laf and Herc be?”

  
“I’m pretty sure that Laf would be purple.”

  
Alex nodded. “I guess. But what about Herc? Maybe brown?”

 

“Something neutral like that, yeah.” John agreed. “Hey, what about Theodosia and Burr?”  
  
Alex made a face. “Something boring for Burr. Grey.”

 

John laughed. “Knew you would say that. I think Theo would be gold?”

 

“Yeah.” Alex rolled over so he was laying on John’s chest and ran a hand through John’s hair. He pushed himself up a little so that he was face to face with John, staring into his eyes.

 

Then he leaned in and gently kissed him. John didn’t respond at first but then kissed Alex back like they had been dating for a while. Like it wasn’t their first kiss.

 

Alex leaned back so he was resting against John again.

 

“That was nice.”

  
“Very nice,” John agreed. “So nice that we should do it again?”

 

Alex leaned back up so he was near John’s face again. 

 

“I like the way you think.”    
  


“Oooo,” Peggy commented, running her hands down the front of the dress the mannequin was wearing. “Look, it comes in yellow, pink, and blue.”

 

“We have so many matching clothes, Peg.” Eliza said while looking through the rack for each of their sizes.

 

“What’s one more? Besides, these dresses are really pretty! And it’s like, cheap, so that it won’t cost to much when you buy it for me.”

 

“We won’t be here to buy you stuff pretty soon.” Angelica looked at the price tags anyway and held the dress that Eliza had handed her against her chest.

 

“Please?”

 

“Fine,” Eliza sighed. “Let’s go try these on!” She said, enthusiastically. 

 

Grinning wildly, Peggy dragged her also smiling sisters towards the changing rooms.  They each picked a stall and tried the dress on. 

 

Peggy twirled a little in the small space. Satisfied with the dresses feel and look she left the stall to greet her sisters. 

 

“We look great!” Eliza twirled to see her own dress spin. 

 

“Better than great!”

  
“Fabulous!”

  
“Trendy!”

 

“Smashing!”

  
“Stupendous!”

  
“Lit!” 

 

Angelica hit Peggy gently. Peggy just beamed back at her.

 

“So we’re getting them?”

  
“We’re getting them.” Angelica confirmed.

 

Peggy pulled her phone out while sitting in the mall’s food court with her sisters. Eliza and Angelica rolled her eyes at her, but let her do it anyway. Peggy scrolled through her phone's camera roll, looking for a certain picture.

 

“Hey, guys, guess what I can do!”

 

“What?”

 

“I can become the almighty mythic bitch!”

 

“Heather Chandler?” Eliza asked.

 

“Who else?

  
“Do it! I want to see this.” 

 

“Okay.” Peggy rolled her head and blinked before giving her two sisters a frosty smile.  _ “Heather wasn’t feeling well! We were helping her! I love Veronica Sawyer!” _

_  
_ Angelica snorted and the three dissolved into giggles. 

 

“Pretty sure she didn’t say that.”

  
“I’m reading between the lines, Angie. Didn’t you learn to do that? You’re in college, after all.”

  
The group started to laugh again, when Eliza stood up and waved to two people at the opposite end of the food court. The two saw the sisters and turned so they were walking in their direction.

 

“Who’s that?” Peggy asked.

  
“Oh, it’s Alex and John!” Angelica waved at the two. By then they had reached the sister’s table.

 

John and Alex slid into two of the three free seats at the sister’s table for six.

 

“Hey!” John grinned at the girls. “How’s your afternoon been?”

  
“Peggy got us kicked out of BonTon.”

  
“No I didn’t, I got us asked to leave BonTon. There’s a difference.”

 

“Sure there is.” Angelica rolled her eyes and John laughed. “Were you two on a date?” She asked. 

 

“Nah,” Alex shook his head, then paused. “Wait, if we’re dating, and we go somewhere together alone, does that mean we’re on a date?”

  
Eliza thought about that for a moment. “I don’t think so.”

 

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense. ‘Cause for it to be a date, you have to know you’re on a date and I didn’t know if we were or not so that makes sense. Anyway. Peggy! Do you play any instruments?” Alex spoke and switched between conversation topics quickly. 

 

“I do, actually! I’m second trumpet.”

 

“Is that good?” John asked.

 

“I’m second chair of about twenty.”

 

“Jeez, that take a lot of work?”

 

“Oh, yeah, tons. Me and my best friend overthrew the previous first and seconds chairs and put ourselves in their place, which toppled the entire trumpet system. We accidently set of the Flute’s Rebellion and the War Between the Double Reed’s and the Single Reed’s. It was a disaster.”

 

The entire table broke into laughter. After they calmed down, John turned back to Peggy.

 

“How’s your mimicking going?”

 

Peggy’s face lit up. “Awesome! I just imitated Heather Chandler’s voice before you came! Hang on, wait, I’m going to do an Eliza mimic again!”

  
Peggy swayed back and forth a little as her body began changing and growing from her own’s into Eliza’s. She rolled her shoulders back, stretching and shaking a little, with her eyes closed. She opened them to stare at the rest of the table.

 

_ “How do I look? And sound?” _

 

“Realistic.” Alex half-whispered.

 

“Oh my God, look at her eyes!” Angelica pointed. John and Eliza gasped almost immediately, then Alex a moment later.

 

Peggy looked  _ exactly  _ like Eliza. Even her clothes and makeup had been mimicked perfectly.

 

_ “Is it a good ‘oh my god’ or a bad ‘oh my god’?”  _ Peggy asked, a little worried.

 

“Good but scary.” Eliza bit her lip.

 

_ “Why?”  _

 

“Because you are me.”

  
_“Oh. Okay. I’m going to go back to normal now.”_

 

Peggy shifted back to being herself.

 

“I’m tired.”

  
“We can go back home, if you want to?”

 

“Yeah, that works.”

  
“Want me to make a doorway for you guys?” John offered.

 

“Nah,” Angelica shook her head. “Our car’s here. Wanna come with? Back to our apartment, I mean. We can watch a movie or something.”

  
“Sure.” John shrugged. “I think we’re both free.”

  
The group stood and began the short walk to the parking lot from the food court. 

  
“What would we watch?” Eliza asked.

 

“I’ve never heard of Heather Chandler before, so if that’s from a movie we could watch that?” Alex asked.

 

Angelica, Eliza, Peggy, and John stopped walking.

 

“You’ve never seen Heathers?” Angelica asked.

 

“You’ve never seen Heathers!?!” Peggy gasped, dramatically half-falling backwards into John’s arms. “We have to fix that!”

  
“Is it a movie?” Alex asked, embarrassed.

 

Eliza patted his arm reassuringly. “It’s a movie and a musical.”

 

“I’m pretty sure we can find a bootleg of the musical somewhere! We’ve gotta watch that!” 

 

“If we can find one, we’ll watch the musical first. The movie’s still pretty good, though.”

 

As they neared the exit, Peggy stopped walking.

 

“What is it, Peg?’

 

“I wanna mimic Alex!”

  
“Can’t we do that at your apartment?” Alex asked.

 

“We coooooould, but we could also not.”

  
“Fine, alright.”

 

Peggy stared at Alex hard before beginning to sway. She stopped after only a moment of doing it though, and clutched her head. 

 

“Ow!”

 

“What is it?” Angelica was immediately at Peggy’s left side while Eliza stood at Peggy’s right. 

 

“I have a headache. Shit. Okay, I think I might’ve strained my powers a little? I’ll be fine,” she waved off her sisters. “Let’s just go home? And watch Heather’s?”

 

“Sure, sure, of course.” The others each said something that agreed with her before starting to walk again. They made their way towards Angelica and Eliza’s car faster than they had been walking before, eager to make it inside.

 

A burst of  _ something  _ stopped them. Something red, or green, or blue, or maybe grey? None of them could tell what it was that was keeping them frozen. They were glued to ground with the something, covering their legs and feet and keeping their arms trapped to their sides. 

 

Then there was a  _ someone,  _ no, more than one, rushing at them from all directions. They grabbed Alex, and someone started to scream. John wasn’t sure if it was him, or if it was Eliza, or if it was Angelica, or maybe Peggy. Maybe it was all of them at once.

 

Alex screamed, too, as they grabbed him. Then there was that  _ something  _ grabbing at him, reaching long tendrils of black or orange or pink up his sides and around his face. It held him tight, and his voice just  _ stopped _ as he went limp.

 

Then there was darkness, thicker than anything John had seen, and Eliza’s screams were the loudest. Then there was light, creeping in along the edges before coming in suddenly.

 

At first John was grateful to be out of the darkness, but light allows things to be seen. And some of the things that people see in light are things that they don’t want to see.

 

For example, John really didn’t want to see a grey car speeding away from them, with teal light, or navy light, or yellow light glowing out of the windows, and no Alex anywhere.

 

John collapsed. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me what you guys think!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back at the NYCSMP, basically

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay but like i'm updating early so yEAH
> 
> i cant really concentrate because im watching 'history of the entire world, i guess' and im distracted

He woke up. He was dazed and confused. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t feel. Could he? Maybe. He wasn’t sure. He was confused.  
Something hit him. It was colorful. It was made of olive colored light. It hurt. He could feel. He screamed. Someone else screamed.  
Why was there so much screaming?  
Why was someone laughing?  
Was that laughing?  
Why did the other screaming stop?  
Where did the pain go?

 

 

He let out a sob, clinging hard to Lafayette’s arms. Lafayette tried to make some soothing sound at him, to try and comfort John, but he couldn’t, his throat felt too tight. Hercules rubbed Lafayette’s back. 

Peggy didn’t mind that she was held tight between her sisters. She knew that Angelica wouldn't mind if anything got onto her shirt, which was good, because Peggy was sure that her makeup had started to run.

Maria bit her lip and rubbed her eyes, standing alone. She wondered if they had been like this when she had been taken, even if she hadn’t been gone for very long. She wondered if anyone had cried like this when Mary was taken. Oh, god, she thought, and staggered backwards. Mary had a son, Mary had a husband. Why hadn’t she been thinking of that until now? Maria buried her face in her hands and hoped the others wouldn’t notice that her tears weren’t really for Alex, but for her friend.

Theo put her arms around Aaron, holding him tight as he tried hard not to cry. He had known Alexander longer than any of them.

 

Martha had given up her office to Alex’s mourning friends and had gone to George’s office. She wasn’t the only one standing near the map on one of the large tables, but she was certainly the oldest. 

“If we take the main entrance they’ll catch us immediately. Angelica said it herself, there’s people there. It’s well lit too.”

“That’s the only entrance that we can all go through at once though.”

“That’s your only reason for using that death trap? We’ll split up into teams of two through four and take the north, west, south, and east entrances.”

“The lower level ones too. This building was originally an apartment building, it’s got a shit ton of entrances.”

“Which are probably traps.”

“We can risk it if we send in powerful enough teams.”

“You want to go on a suicide mission?”

Martha put her head in her hands. Where she was standing, leaning against the wall near but not in the crowd of people around the map, she couldn’t very easily ignore their bickering. 

Finally, she sighed and moved to stand at the head of the table next to her husband. People moved automatically to make way for her.

She put her hands down flat on the middle of the map, getting the whole room’s attention. 

“How about this. We’re not getting anymore work done anytime soon, so how about we   
set ourselves a deadline of, say, tomorrow at five.” 

A wave of muttering was cut off by a wave of her hand.

“And then, tomorrow, later, we go out there and do our mission. We find the importance in their operation and see who we can rescue. Remember, there’s always the possibility of uninvolved citizens being there. We’d take as many people back as we can, cuff them with the power blockers, and put them in holding rooms. George?”

He nodded. “That sounds like a plan. After all, we know that there is at least one captive there, Alexander, and we know where their base is. I approve Martha’s plan. This plan must be finished by tomorrow.”

There’s a lot more than muttering to George’s announcement, but like Martha, he cuts them off. 

“Sir? Ma’am?”

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to suggest that we use the powered people that Theodosia tested earlier. Not that kid, but the others. I believe that they’d be useful to our operation.”

Martha bits her lip. George nods.

“I agree. John’s portals would be very useful for when we need to leave. However, it’d be volunteers only and people with powers that aren’t useful in the moment wouldn’t be allowed to go. And Peggy, of course, wouldn’t go.”

“You’re thinking of letting everyone but Angelica and Peggy go?”

“I am. And Theodosia and Aaron, of course, as they do work here.” 

Martha sighed heavily. “I agree. I would stay here and help run the coms with some others. I’m thinking we’re going to need a medical van for this?”

“At least one.” Someone nodded.

“And some extra people waiting nearby, outside, in case we need backup.”

“Obviously.”

“Stop fighting with me, Jessica.”

“That’s not even my name and you know it.”

“Jennifer.”

“Shut the fuck up, I’m not a basic bitch from the eighties.”

“Hey,” George warns.

“You, Jasmine, go over to one side of the table. Cole, get as far away from her while still being at this table. I swear, you guys are worse than children.” Martha makes movements with her hands as she directs them.  
Martha rests her head in her hands. It’s only the afternoon, she thinks, and people are already fighting. It’s going to be a long night.

 

They give the group in Martha’s office a little longer to mourn before Martha goes to collect them to bring them up to speed. They sit in the chairs near George’s desk. Lafayette, John, and Hercules are crammed onto a small couch meant for two. Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy pushed chairs as close together as they could. Maria sits in her own chair near. Theo and Aaron stand.

Theo’s the first to speak. 

“What are we doing? What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to send a large team that will break into smaller groups of about four and send them to their base, which is across the river in New Jersey. It’s right across from a Starbucks, actually, so we’ll send the teams there first. The three medic vans will be parked near the Starbucks as casually as they can be.” Martha explained.

“That’s it?”

“No. The teams will split up and enter through the different entrances, avoiding the main one. From there, each team will search that section of the building for possible civilians that have been taken.”

“Like Alex.” John runs a finger over the chipped paint on his nails.

“Like Mary.”

“Exactly. Each team will also be sent with power blocking cuffs in case they find someone like Samuel Seabury. Of course, we understand if they can’t take down the person peacefully, but we’d really prefer it. Everyone going on the mission will have earpieces in case they need to contact someone from the outside. And, of course, we will have people, Martha included, that will be running the coms.”

After George finished talking, no one from the group spoke up. 

“Well?”

“You want us to go on this mission, don’t you?” Angelica asked after the long pause. “There’s no other reason you people would be telling us this, not just Theo and Aaron.” 

“That’s true.” Martha nodded. “But it’s volunteer only, and Peggy and Angelica, you two can’t go.”

“Hey! I want to go!”’

“No!” Angelica and Eliza shouted.

“But my pow-”

“I understand why I shouldn’t go,” Cutting off Peggy, Angelica spoke. “It’s because my powers wouldn’t help defend me. And Peggy, you should understand! You’re too young!”

“No! I’m a senior in highschool, I’m-”

“You’re seventeen!”

There’s a pause.

“I thought you said Eliza was one year older than Peggy, and that you were two years older?” Hercules asked.

“I get confused sometimes, sorry.”

“Who are you going to send?” Lafayette cut in.

“Whichever of you wants to go, excluding Peggy and Angelica.”

“I’m going.” Aaron said quickly.

“Same.” Theo spoke right after Aaron.

“Me too.” John says. “Me and Herc and Laf, right?”

“Of course.”

 

“Well, yeah.”

“And I’m going.” Eliza leaned back in her chair.

Peggy’s head snapped towards her sister.

“That’s not fair!”

“We’re not having this fight again.”

“I’ll go.” Maria spoke before Peggy could get properly angry again. 

“Alright. Well, we’ll need to pair you up into groups and get you guys some basic training about what to do in certain situations. Angelica, Peggy, I’ll show you guys what we’ll be doing with the coms while George and the other’s do the other stuff.”

“No, I don’t want Peggy to be here at all.”

“Angie!” Peggy stood, outraged. “So I won’t be doing anything?”

Angelica stood up as well. 

“Peggy, you’re too young! You’ll look back on this in twenty years and be glad we didn’t send you.”

“No, I won’t!”

“Peggy!”

“Agh! I’m going home.”

“Peggy!”  
As Peggy crossed the room to get to the door, John stood up as quickly as he could from being packed tight next to Lafayette and Hercules.

“I’ll take her.”

“Thank you.”

“Thanks, John.”

Peggy glared at her sister, lips pressed into a tight line. John opened a doorway to the Schuyler’s apartment. The two walked through, then John closed it.

“Be careful.”

“I am!”

“You’re really not. Stay here if you’re not going with us. Lock the doors, close the blinds,”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t stay here?”

“Peg,” John crossed his arms. “I can kind of see myself, as what I used to be, in you.”

“So? Now I’m the rebellious teen everyone once was before they grew up and learned responsibility? You can’t go, Peggy, you’re just a kid. Ugh!”

“Peg, I got hit by a truck.”

That startled Peggy enough that she looked up from where she was staring out the window, hands frozen in the gesture she was caught in the middle of. 

“What? Seriously?”

“Yeah. There was this game the teens back in my hometown played, where they’d run across the busier streets.”

“Jeez. People really did that?” Peggy sat down on the couch.

“Yeah. Dad told me to never do it. I was always like, ‘Oh, it’s just because of his big-politician reputation.’ And maybe it was partly that, but I think it could also have been because I was his son that he didn’t want getting hurt. But still, I didn’t play that game until this one afternoon”

“What happened?”

“I wanted to go to this drums event.”

“You played percussion?”

“Still, do, a little. But yeah. I wanted to go, but he said no, because he needed me at this other event that I didn’t want to be at at all. So in an act of rebellion, I went out with some guys to this really busy road to play the game.”

“And?”

“I ran across once safely, but when I was running back I slipped and got hit. Broke a bunch of bones, had to be in a wheelchair for a while.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So please, be safe. Angie and Eliza care about you a lot. All of us care about you.”

“I know.”

Peggy stood to hug John before sitting back down.

“I’ll be careful.”

“That’s good. I should be heading back now, but if you need any of us, call us, okay?”

“Okay.”

“See you later, Peg.”

“See you later.”

John opened a door and left.

Peggy leaned back on the couch. She sighed. Just because people cared about her didn’t make her not want to help. Alex was her friend! Why would she stay behind? Besides, she wasn’t all that young either. In the olden days, people got married when they were younger than she was.   
Peggy decided that she was going to do something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you guys think! See you on friday or saturday but probably saturday honestly


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back with Alex and someone new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!
> 
> Okay, so in this chapter there's someone who you could technically count as an original character I guess?? I hope you guys don't mind, since I really like her. But I figured that not to many people would mind since it seems that the Hamilton fandoms thing is taking random names from history and putting faces on them. Which I don't mind at all, in case you think I'm complaining or something. I just didn't feel like finding a person from history and putting this character over them.
> 
> also like?? there are characters who we don't even see in the musical who are in a TON of fanfics, like the Theodosia's, and there are people who are just barely in the musical but are in a bunch of fanfics also, like Peggy
> 
>  
> 
> anyway I don't know where I was going with this  
> Enjoy the chapter!

When he woke up fully, he wasn’t in as much pain as before. Alex put a hand against his head and rolled his stiff shoulders. He put his hand on the area next to him then jerked it away in surprise when he felt the soft fabric. 

 

Alex opened his eyes fully and saw that he was sitting on a bed and that he was 

leaning against the corner where one wall met another. Even though he was sitting up, there were still some blankets covering his lap. The blankets were a soft red wool.

 

Alex pushed the blankets away and moved to stand when a feminine voice across the room stopped him.

 

“Hey, I wouldn’t do that.”

 

“What?” He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, when he saw a pale girl sitting in a chair at a table about fifteen feet away.

 

“I wouldn’t recommend standing. I’d be forced to do something about it, and we both know how well that would go. For both of us, I mean, not just you.”

  
“What?”

  
The girl shook her head. She was pale, but unnaturally so, it seemed. She looked like the washed-out image of what she should have been. Her hair, which ended a little below her shoulders, was dark brown with a couple bright green streak through it. The streaks clashed with the candy red baggy shirt she was wearing. The shirt looked like it was three times too big.

 

“I’m the only one here who’s powers even really affect you, and look where that’s gotten me.”

 

“Here?” Alex asked. “Where’s here? Where am I? Where are we?”

  
“King’s land.”

  
“What? Is that some country?”

  
“No, idiot.” She gave Alex a tight-lipped smiled. “It’s just what we call it, here. Anyway. I’m supposed to take care of you, or whatever. Alexander, right? Your name is Alexander?”

 

“It is. What’s yours?”

 

“They call me Mercy, here.” The girl- ‘Mercy’?- sounded bitter.

 

“What about other places?”

  
“Doesn’t matter.” She looked away, then back at him again. “I read about you, a little while ago. You were homeless for a bit, weren’t you? So was I.”

 

“Really? And you’re here now?”

  
“Mmmhmm. And I’m called Mercy now.”

  
“Would you rather be called something else?”

  
“Nah. I’m fine now.”

  
“Alright, then.”

 

They sat in silence for a while. Alex played nervously with the sheets, not sure where he was and only knowing that he was in trouble. And he didn’t even have powers to get him out of it! If he was John, he could be opening a portal and leaving. If he was Hercules, he could become invisible and sneak out. If he was Lafayette he could convince someone- Mercy, maybe- to let him leave safely. 

 

He leaned back into the wall and let the cool surface comfort him.

 

“Oh!” Mercy made a startled sound from the chair she was sitting in.

 

“What?”

 

“I can’t believe it! I forgot! I need to tell you some stuff!”

  
“What type of stuff?” Alex leaned forward.

 

“Stuff. Okay, okay, so,” Mercy looked over the messy table before finding a large leather-bound book. She grabbed it, then she grabbed her chair and pulled it so she was closer to Alex.

 

“So, this stuff might- it might freak you out a bit. Well, actually, it’s probably going to freak you out a lot.” She revised. 

  
“Oh..?”

  
“Yeah. It’s kind of scary?”

 

Alex relaxed a little. “Are you reading me a horror story?”

  
“No, I wish. I’m reading you the Process and the research behind it. At least, I think that’s what this book’s on.”

  
Alex could practically hear the capital P of process. He sunk down in the bed, pulling the covers closer to him.

 

Mercy noticed.

“Yeah, you should do that if it’ll comfort you. Anyway, if you panic or something, please don’t attack me or the room because then I’ll be forced to do something about it and like I said before we already know where that would go so let’s not do that. Okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Okay. Okay. Okay. So,” Mercy flipped through the book. She looked… jittery? Alex wasn’t quite sure of how to describe the nervous energy she was seemingly radiating. 

 

“So, there’s this thing that some ancient warrior dudes did a long time ago. And it was this type of ritual thing, where they would- okay, maybe it might make more sense if I read the introduction?”

  
“Maybe.”

  
“Yeah, I’ll do that. Okay. ‘Some records say that how the warriors of olden times had received their strength from others. Not in the way that mimics do, but instead by pulling the life from their competitors and using it as their own. These warriors were the most feared, and rarely lost their battles.’ Jeez, who wrote that? Like, that sentence is so awkward to say and I don’t think it’s grammatically right at _all._ ”

 

Alex, glad to be at least momentarily distracted, spoke quickly.

“Yeah, you’re right. My dog could write something better than that.”   
  


Mercy giggled and picked up the book again, searching from where she had left off before abandoning it and just deciding to summarize it. 

 

“So, basically, these warriors would attack someone and through a certain Process they would pull the life force from that person and absorb it. It would make them really powerful, but also a little less human. It would also kill the person they attacked.”

 

Alex was quickly seeing where Mercy was heading with this and really, really,  _ really,  _ didn’t like it. He took a deep breath.

 

“And so- you see… Our king has been wanting to do this but wanted to make sure he would drain,”

  
Alex shivered.

 

“The right person. And some of our people observed that you were kind of brimming with an unexplainable energy? And you could like, go for a while without stopping or with the quality of what you did decreasing.”

 

In all of his life, Alex has never wanted to cry more from his workaholic tendencies. People always said it’d be the death of him. 

 

Who knew they’d be right?

 

“And some of the people sent to do more in-depth observations saw that there was something, but not something very noticeable. And that something got us wondering. And it got King wondering.”

  
“You guys are going to kill me.” Alex looked away from Mercy, trying hard not to cry. He could feel the tears threatening to spill already. 

  
Mercy looked down at the book in her lap. She fiddled with the pages. After a long silence she spoke, her voice soft.

 

“Yeah.”

  
She stood and carried the chair back to the table. She sat down and put the book on the far and of the table from her.

 

“Now what? If I’m going to be… drained, of my life force. No, murdered. Yeah. If I’m going to be murdered, and that’s been decided for a while, what’s the wait?”

  
“King’s going to come in and see you. They’re not performing the ritual for a while. I think they’re doing it tomorrow.”

 

Alex decided not to point out that ‘tomorrow’ wasn’t very far away at all.

  
“When’s he coming?” Alex asked.

 

“Now!” A joyful and entirely unfamiliar voice rang out, the door opening (one that Alex hadn’t even seen) and  slamming into the wall. 

 

A very tall and thin man entered the room. He was wearing bright and extravagant clothes. His coat was long, going to just below his knees. It was a combination of orange and red and absolutely  _ covered  _ in tiny shining jewels. The man's face wasn’t very eye catching, though. He looked pretty average. Even his hair, which always has the possibility to be very expressive, was rather plain. The red-brown wasn’t very interesting.

 

Still, he absolutely terrified Alex.

 

Mercy practically threw herself onto the floor, bowing deeply.

 

“Your Majesty.”

 

“Ah, Mercy, I see you have been informing our dear Alexander here on the the Process and what will happen?” Alex realized that the man, who must have been King, had a British accent. He wasn’t sure if it was faked or not.

 

“I have.”

 

King glared at Mercy. She tried again.

 

“I have, your Majesty.”

  
“Great!” King’s demeanor changed completely to something that looked a little more positive but still completely unwelcoming at the same time. 

  
“Now, Alexander, dear, I plan to do this whole Ritual thing tomorrow evening. I feel that that’s a better time, yes? And besides, this’ll give you some more time to become acquainted to your new home!”

 

“What? Home? I’m not going to  _ live  _ here!” Alex said before he could shut himself up. Immediately after he curled in on himself a little. 

 

To his surprise, King laughed. And kept laughing. He didn’t stop laughing until he couldn’t laugh anymore. Alex wondered if King would suffocate from all the laughing.

 

Sadly, he didn’t.

 

“Oh, well, you see, Alexander. You’re never going to leave this building, which makes it your home! Of course, you won’t live here for very long, but you’re still living the last of your life here, which makes it special!”

 

“Oh.”

  
“For example, this room here has been the last home to _three_ other people! And you’ll be the fourth! Won’t that be cool?”

  
Alex didn’t respond. King laughed again and took a step closer to Alex.

 

“Now, I don’t suppose you would know this, but I happen to be a power mimic! Just like your dear friend, Peggy. Except I mimic powers while she mimics appearances and voices. But still! Now, I expect it will hurt me a bit, but still! I must try!”

 

King took another step closer to Alex before leaning over him and grabbing Alex’s shoulders and starting to sway.

 

After only a second or two, he took a big step back, shaking his head hard.

 

“As always, I was right. Now, Mercy, darling, you’re going to stay here in this suite with our friend Alexander and keep careful watch over him. I must be going!”

 

With that, King left, letting the door slam shut behind him, leaving Alex and Mercy alone in the room.

 

“That was King?” Alex asked.

 

“That was King.” Mercy confirmed. “I should let you sleep. I’m going to sleep now. Please don’t smother me in my sleep, I’d be dead and you’d be in so much trouble they’d move the ritual up so it’d be earlier and also probably kill your friends and boyfriend.”

  
Alrighty then, Alex thought.

 

“Uh, I won’t. Goodnight, Mercy.”

  
“‘Night.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do you guys think of Mercy? and about the chapter/story in general? 
> 
>  
> 
> (By the way, I won't be able to update on friday OR saturday next week, so I'm either going to update on wednesday or sunday)


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We visit the team at the NYCSMP, Alex and Mercy, and Peggy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey
> 
> As I said last chapter, I'm not going to update on friday or saturday this week. I'm busy! So that's what this update is for. I'm not quite sure if I'll update on sunday, but I might... I'm not sure.

 

Eliza and the others had slept at the NYCSMP office. Except for Peggy. Peggy stayed and pouted at Eliza and Angelica’s apartment.

 

Eliza had wanted to have Peggy stay with them, but Angelica was firm on what she had said before.

“I don’t want her here, she’ll get hurt.”

 

With that, they had left her. 

 

Now, Eliza was alone, standing in front of a wide open window. She liked the cool breeze and how it washed over her. The sun was rising over the city, spreading its oranges and yellows into the receding blue of the night sky and across the clouds.

 

Eliza always had loved the sunrises.

 

“Eliza?”

  
She startled and turned quickly. She relaxed when she saw who it was, though. Only Hercules.

 

“Why are you awake?” He asked. “Don’t you want to be sleeping or something?”

  
She shook her head.

 

“Couldn’t, I tried. And besides, the sunrise is so pretty. What about you?”

 

He shrugged. 

  
“I’m a morning person, always have been. You know how kids always get up at like six in the morning on weekdays and like seven on weekends?”

  
“Oh boy do I know. I have a bunch of younger siblings.”

 

“I never grew out of that phase, I guess.”

 

Eliza laughed, then turned back to the window.

  
“Do you want to watch the sunrise with me? Before all of this goes to hell later today, I mean.”

  
“Sure.”

  
They stood together, watching the sunrise and wondering if it was their last. Eliza knew that the sunrise would be burned into her eyes for the rest of her life, if if that ended soon or if she was ninety-seven when it finally did. 

 

It was peaceful, she decided, but in the way that the abandoned streets were peaceful when an entire city had been evacuated to prepare for a storm.

  
  
  


Eliza looked around. Her team was composed two people she didn’t know until the day before (a woman named Jasmine and a man named Rob) and Lafayette. 

 

Hercules and John were together and they were paired with Grace and Jordan, two very cool agents who, fun fact, could both skateboard.

 

Theo and Aaron were with two of their friends in the NYCSMP, Cole and Tristen. Personally, Eliza thought Tristen was kind of bland, but he did his job well from what Eliza could tell.

 

Maria was with three others who were apparently all competing in the same extreme baking competition-- Kirsten, Anastasia, and Brian.

 

They stood together, all nervously pacing. Even the people in George Washington’s group couldn’t seem to stay still. 

 

“Alright everybody! Everyone’s got their mics in?” Martha’s voice drew all of their attention away from their own thoughts and to her and to Angelica, who stood next to her.

 

Everyone said something along the lines of ‘yeah’. 

 

“Great! Okay, let’s review. Tap it once to..?”

  
“Mute the main channel.” Everyone, including Eliza, said in almost-but-not-quite unison.

 

“Yeah! Two taps to..?”

 

“Change the channel to the main control room.”

 

“Yeah! Remember, we’ll switch it back automatically to the main channel unless you guys say something. Three taps to..?”

 

“Call for help.”

  
“Awesome, you guys all got that. Remember, if you need help, _ask for it._ This isn’t a standardized test, you’re allowed to ask questions. Be safe, I love you all.”

  
“Alright everyone, get into your assigned vans with your team partners! We’re heading out!” George called.  
Angelica ran from her spot at Martha’s side to pull Eliza into a tight hug. Angelica could feel herself tearing up a little and pushed the tears back as hard as she could. She wasn’t even going on the mission, she didn’t deserve to cry. She needed to stay strong.

 

“I love you, Eliza, please be safe out there. Don’t make dad kill me anymore than he already is going to.”

 

Eliza smiled at her sister. “I’ll try. Love you too.” 

 

Then Eliza moved to go with her group and Angelica grabbed John’s arm, first pulling him closer to her than into a hug.

 

“Be safe, John, be careful. Come back home. Bring him back.”

 

John nodded hard. Angelica could feel it in her hair. 

 

“I’ll try. Love you, Angie.”

 

“Love you too, John.”

 

Like Eliza had, John went to walk with his group. Taking a deep breath, Angelica steadied herself and followed Martha and some others to the command center.

  
  


Alex woke up way too early to the sound of Mercy moving around the room. He still refused to think of it as his, because, despite what King had said, even if he spends the rest of his life in it, is a few hours enough to make something his?

 

“You’re awake!”

 

Alex wasn’t ready for people. He rolled back over and put the pillow over his face. Mercy pulled it away.

 

“Hey, don’t do that. Sit up, I’ve got pancakes and more instructional reading or whatever for you.”

 

Alex groaned and sat up. “Can we not do the whole ‘here’s a book about the exact way you’re going to die, have fun’ during breakfast?”

  
Mercy rolled her eyes. “Obviously. Here, take your plate- no, sit at the table with me. You’ll get syrup all over the sheets.”

 

“Fine.”

  
Alex stood and got to take a good look at the room. There was a door visible behind a small kitchen area that he hadn’t seen before. Mercy set the plates down then went to get water from the sink. As she poured them both a glass, Alex pointed to the door.

 

“What’s that?”

  
“Bathroom. Home to the tiniest shower you have ever seen and the weirdest soaps you have ever smelled.”

 

Confused, Alex looked up from his plate of frankly amazing smelling pancakes. “For real? How would you know?”

  
She shrugged. “There’s a lot of rooms like this and I live in one. For like a month, until I used up the soap, I had the default soaps. It’s like cilantro and sage and stuff. I dunno,” She hesitated. “Is that weird?”

 

Mercy sat down across from Alex. As she sat, a silver locket was visible around her neck. The string was long enough for it to be easily hidden under her shirt. The locket itself was large, Alex guessed about three inches in diameter and three inches high. On the front there was a weird other locket on top-- Alex could see that it was openable. That part was off-center and curved. Alex could best describe its shape as a crescent moon. 

“Maybe. I generally get like coconut smelling soap.” Alex said, more to answer her question then to further the conversation. He gestured with his fork towards the locket, his main point of interest. “What’s that?”

  
“What? Oh.” She quickly put down her fork so she could tuck her locket back down the front of her shirt. “It’s nothing. Well, actually, I mean, you’re leaving soon.”

  
“Dying.”

 

“Yeah. Which means you can’t spread my secrets.” She pulled the locked back out of her shirt. She opened the front part first. 

  
Alex leaned slightly over the table to see better. Inside of that were what looked like three tiny pencils and three tiny pens.

 

“Stuff to write with.”

  
“Do those actually work?”

  
“Yeah. Really freakin’ useful, too.” She closed the smaller part of the locket and opened the main part. Inside was a small pad of paper, the number _47_ written on it.

 

“What’s the 47 for?”

 

“The year I was born.” Mercy deadpanned.  

 

Alex snorted. Mercy rolled her eyes.

 

“It’s actually the people I’ve seen die since I’ve gotten here.”

  
“Oh.” That wasn’t an answer Alex had been expecting. 

  
“Yeah. At first I tried to write down what their names were, if I could find out, or at least what they looked like, but I ran out of space. So instead it’s the number that honestly, I could recite without the locket, but hey, it’s good to write stuff down. Honor their memory or some shit like that with a number that means nothing to anyone other than me and like three others.”

 

For all that Alex spoke, he had nothing to say. They didn’t talk for the rest of their breakfast.

  
  
  


Peggy had packed the black cross-shoulder bag in case they went out somewhere where she would need it. She didn’t expect to be taking it on something like this, or packing it with what she was.

 

Of course, she had her phone, and a flip-phone that she had found in one of her sister’s cabinets, just in case she needed another one. There was a roll of bandages from the first aid kit, some scissors, some duct tape, and some rope. 

 

There was also three box cutters and a swiss army knife.

 

She searched for the right person to mimic online, until she found a perfectly bland thirty-something woman online. She mimicked the woman as best as she could, staring in the mirror and at her phone as she did so. She stared and stared until her hair grew longer and straighter and blonder and her skin whiter and her height taller.

 

Then she left the apartment, shoes looking unfamiliarly rich and dress unfamiliarly stylish. 

 

She knew where the Starbucks was. She knew how to get there. She knew her plan.

 

Peggy boarded the bus into New Jersey prepared and more excited than she had been in a while.

 

This would prove herself to anyone who doubted her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! tell me what you think?


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter before everyone is together/near each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey
> 
> I wasn't actually planning on posting today but I'm ahead and I rEALLLLY can't wait for you guys to see chapter 20!! which means that you guys need to read this first!!! hint- chapter 20 is the longest so far, at almost 5,000 words.
> 
> anYWAY! CHAPTER 19!! Enjoy!

“Then, after I go on break, they’re going to take you away and start the Process.”

 

“Great.”

 

Alex paced the room and Mercy let out an exasperated sigh. 

 

“You’re not listening to me.”

  
“I am.”

 

“You’re really not, or else you’d be… Whatever. I’ll tell you later.” Mercy moved to stand in the small kitchen. 

 

“What are you doing?” Alex asked as she opened the refrigerator. 

 

“Making lunch. It’s boring sometimes to have that premade hotel food.”

  
“Really?”

  
“Yeah.” Mercy shrugged. “I like to cook. I can’t do it very well, but I like to. Come over here, make lunch with me.”

 

“Fine. Hey, why do you like to cook? And what are we making?”

 

“Pasta. Here, take this pot-” She handed him a medium sized pot. “Fill this with water, get it to boiling. I’ll get the…” Instead of ending on something definite, Mercy just trailed off. 

  
Alex obediently filled the pot and put it on one of the two burners. “But why do you like to cook?”

 

Mercy gave a little shrug. “Mom taught me.”

 

“You said you were homeless?”

  
She gave him a look. “I still had to be born, right? But yeah, Mom taught me this kinda stuff. Then there was this thing, still don’t know exactly _what_ happened, but she lost custody of me and I had to live with my Aunt.”

 

She measured out the ingredients for the pasta they were making as she spoke. “Here’s the thing, though, my Aunt is a bitch. So I ran away.”

 

“Seriously? You just ran away?” He took the pasta that she handed him and added it to the boiling water.

 

“That’ll cook for eleven minutes.” Mercy set the timer before returning to the conversation. “Yeah, I did. Turns out it wasn’t like the books said it would be at all. I was homeless for about a year, though, so I guess I did pretty well. Then I got taken in by these guys.”

  
“When was that?”

 

“Couple years ago? I’m not sure. I’m sixteen now though, almost seventeen. May twentieth. ”

  
If Alex was holding something, he would have dropped it. She was younger than Peggy, as far as he knew. 

 

“Really?” he asked. 

  
“Yup. Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Let’s just make this pasta.”

 

“Sure.” Alex decided that if he was ever getting out, he was going to take Mercy with him. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Peggy has never nervously ordered a mocha from Starbucks, but here she was, nervously ordering a mocha.

 

_ Why _ was she nervous?

 

The teams from the NYCSMP were all here, sitting at tables and talking in low voices. 

 

Peggy was trying her hardest to keep up the appearance of the random woman while not walking or talking like she normally would.

 

When she had entered the room, Theo had looked up from her table with a really confused look on her face.

 

“What is it?” Peggy heard one of the people ask.

 

“Nothing, I guess. I just felt... “ Theo had trailed off, still looking suspiciously around the room. Peggy had taken her coffee and fled, taking a seat outside and as far away from Theo while still looking casual. 

 

When they had started to move, she had gone back inside, thrown away her cup, and had hidden in the bathroom until she knew they were gone.

 

Peggy went back into the main room and watched as the teams moved away, none of them taking the main entrance to the base.

 

But Peggy knew they would do that. 

 

She smiled, checking the time on her phone. The other groups had gone in at around five seven. She was going to go in at five fifteen-ish. 

 

And when she went in, she was going to prove herself. Not just to her sisters, but to the world.

  
  


  
They had eaten their lunch. Alex had gone back to his bed, expecting Mercy to sit in one of the chairs again. Instead, she sat at the other end of the bed as him, curling her legs close to her body. She read a book (some English textbook, Alex noticed) and he sat and rested until she closed her book with a snap and poked him.

 

“What?” He asked.

 

“Later today, at,” She checked her watch. “Five thirty exactly, because King likes round even times,  they’re going to come in here and take you away. I’m not a high enough rank to go with you guys, which is why the door will unlock for me at five twenty. I will leave, you will be alone for ten minutes to pray or something, then they’ll arrive. They’ll take you away.”

  
“Okay? Wait, why-”

 

Mercy cut him off, her words getting faster and being delivered with more urgency. 

  
“It is five thirteen right now, which gives me eight minutes exactly before I have to leave.”

 

Alex was seeing where she was going. He sat up straighter.

  
“And?”

  
“I’ll kick off my shoe, jam the door so it won’t lock again. I’ll leave, I’ll turn right and walk down the hallway towards my room.”

 

“What will I do?”

  
Mercy looked at her watch again then back at Alex. “You’ll take my shoe and go left.” She whispered. “And you’ll keep going until you reach the first intersection. Turn right there, you’ll get to this big window. Break the window with my shoe. But don’t go through that window, alright? Instead hide in the closet right next to the window and wait until a janitor shows up.”

  
“Why will a janitor show up?”

  
“To clean up the broken glass. King hates those dots you put on windows so birds don’t hit them, so we don’t have them, and birds smash into the windows a lot. Sometimes the window will break. It’s pretty common. Anyway, an announcement will call the janitor to the area.  Wait until they show up, and peek out to make sure they’re alone. If they are, come out and say something like ‘Mercy sent me, please help me. She doesn’t want to make a 47 into a 48.’ and show them my shoe. They’ll help you.”

 

“Why?”

  
“‘Cause they’re my friends and they promised they’d help me with something like this if I ever got the guts. Get them to take you to the nearest entrance, which is the main one. Meanwhile, I’ll be working my way down to the main entrance from my room. I’m supposed to guard it tonight anyway, I’ll say I thought it was later and excuse the person on duty. I’ll get you out.”

  
“Okay. Will you come with me?”

  
Mercy hesitated, and checked her watch again. “I can try. It’s time for me to get going. Remember, leave a little after I do, maybe a minute later, take my shoe, turn left, turn right, break the window, meet the janitor, get to main entrance, I’ll meet you there. If I’m not there, go. Go as fast as you can, be prepared to fight. Everyone knows that they’ll get hurt if they try to use their powers on you, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try and fight you, hand to hand. Or try and shot you, I dunno.   There’s a Starbucks right across the street, call your friends, don’t trust anyone you don’t know. I gotta go.”

  
Mercy kicked off her shoe and slipped it on in a way so it was just barely on. The door clicked and Mercy opened it. Her shoe fell off her foot casually, and the door closed, but not completely. 

 

Alex counted to sixty before going to the door, opening it carefully, and grabbing the shoe. He turned left and ran.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you guys thought about this chapter!


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter you've all been waiting for... everyone comes together. Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hEY!!!
> 
> IM SO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS TO SEE THIS CHAPTER IT'S 4,500ish WORDS LONG!! officially longest chapter so far! 
> 
> anyway so i meant to put everyone in this chapter and I basically did... except for angelica and martha whoops
> 
> anyway eNJOY!

 

When Peggy went through the main entrance, she was expecting to find something, but no one was there. 

  
She was on edge as she crept along the side of the well-lit room, sneaking as best as she could. Just like a movie, she thought.

 

She reached the large staircase easily, and climbed it, staying at the edges. When she got to the top, she found a girl that was either her height exactly or a little taller. The girl was staying in one spot, behind a desk, but she wasn’t standing still. Instead she fidgeted with her hair and silver necklace. 

 

The girl’s hair was dark brown and it had green streaks through it. Peggy thought they looked pretty cool, even if the girl was on the opposing team of whatever team Peggy was on.

 

Despite her sneakiness, the girl noticed Peggy quickly.

 

“Hey!” She called. She didn’t speak all that loudly, though, so no one came to assist her.  The girl stepped out from behind the desk. “What are you doing here?”

  
Peggy didn’t answer, instead swaying back and forth and quickly mimicking the girls appearance. 

 

_ “Hey! What are you doing here?”  _ She tested out her voice. 

 

The girl looked horrified.

 

“Get behind the desk, don’t come out. Say some stuff.”

 

The girl resisted. Peggy punched her in the face and she swore, grabbing her face.    
  


“I told you, get behind the desk!”

  
The girl crouched behind the desk slowly. Peggy pushed her so she was under it. Peggy pushed the chair in so the girl was almost completely hidden.

 

“What are you doing? Why are you here?”

  
_“What are you doing? Why are you here? I am a super bad guy who’s ended up on the wrong side of history.”_ __  
  


The girl shook her head hard. “You don’t understand, I have to be here!”

 

“ _ Shut it, villian.”  _ Peggy said, and laughed. It really was like the movies. “ _ Stay here.” _ Peggy walked away from the girl, down the corridor. 

 

“Janitor to Wing-A for broken glass. There’s been another bird.” An announcement came on, filling the hallway. Peggy relaxed. It was just about a broken window and a dumb bird.

 

The girl she had shoved under the desk made a despaired sound. 

 

Peggy resumed her walk down the hallway, realizing quickly that she didn’t actually know how the girl walked or the way she talked. 

 

“Hey, you.” A tall woman in a dark red blouse appeared from the other end of the hallway. She was tall, much taller than Peggy or the girl she had mimicked.

 

“Yes?”

  
The woman looked at Peggy strangely.

 

“Yes, ma’am?” She tried again. From what she had heard about this whole area, the people seemed big on respect and groveling to their leaders. That didn’t appear to have helped, however.

 

“Follow me.”

 

“Of course.” She answered quickly.

 

“Now, Olivia,” the woman said. Peggy could have cheered. She knew what the girl she had mimicked was named. “We have some work to do.”

 

“Yes ma’am!” Peggy said as cheerfully as she could. 

 

The woman turned fully around to glare at Peggy. “Olivia?” She said again, a dangerous note in her voice.

 

“Yes..?”

  
“You’re not Mercy.”

  
Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

 

“Uhhh…” Peggy hesitated, before turning to run. The woman grabbed her before she could, and shoved her, hard.

 

Peggy first hit the wall before the woman grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her to the ground. Peggy got the wind knocked out of her when she landed. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. 

“King doesn’t take too strongly to spies, mimic.” She put her foot on Peggy’s stomach so she couldn’t get up. 

The woman then made a spinning motion with her hands, building up a cloud of gray gas, before sending it at at Peggy. 

 

_ painpainpainpain she can’t breathe why can’t she breathe why can’t she feel what’s happening why happening what happen what  _

 

Peggy screamed. Someone else screamed. It was loud. It was too loud. Her ears felt like they would break. 

 

Then it all went black and Peggy couldn’t feel anything.

 

 

Screw it, Mercy thought, as she ran towards the sound of whoever that random mimic was being quickly found out by the dreaded Christine. 

 

The girl screamed, and Peggy knew that Christine had attacked her. Mercy ran faster.

 

Another scream pierced the air, except it sounded more like a wail of despair. Then there was darkness, and Mercy tripped.

 

It wasn’t like she had passed out, she was still aware. And it wasn’t like someone had just turned the lights off. No, the darkness was heavy. Mercy could almost  _ feel  _ it, pressing down on her and getting into her lungs.

 

The darkness got lighter, then darker, then lighter, then it was gone. Mercy shakily stood before there was something else, radiating out from somewhere. 

 

It was strong, and even though it wasn’t being aimed at Mercy, Mercy could feel it. It made her feel like screaming and crying and collapsing. 

 

Christine was screaming now, curling in on herself at the foot of an Asian woman with long black hair. The woman looked furious and dangerous, despite the tears running down her cheeks. Maybe partially because of it. 

 

Mercy fell to the ground again, and the woman turned quickly to her. The mimic was at the woman’s feet. Three others ran to join the woman, one standing next to her and the other two taking up guarding positions around her. 

 

The woman stretched out her hand towards Mercy and Mercy wondered if she would become like Christine, a sobbing mass on the ground. At least Christine had stopped screaming. The more noise they made, the more likely Alexander would be found. 

 

The man next to her pushed her arm back down.

 

“No, no. Wait a moment.” He looked down at Mercy. “What is your name?”

  
Holding her locket tight, Mercy responds. “Mercy. Are you- do you-”’

 

“What happened to my sister?” The woman asks, cutting her off and dropping to her knees beside the girls crumpled form. 

 

“Christine. Her powers are weird, but not all of them are lethal?”

  
The woman lets out a sob. That, apparently, wasn’t the right thing to say. The man glared at Mercy. He glanced at the other two before taking a step closer to Mercy.

 

Mercy was quickly running out of options. She hated to do it, but she needed to do something. 

 

“Do you know Alexander?”

  
The response is instantaneous. All four heads snap towards her. The two standing guard carefully reposition themselves so they can look at Mercy and the hallway.

 

“We do.” The man says carefully. “Do you?”

 

“Yes!” Mercy answers, relieved. The man looks at her like he’s judging what she just said.

 

“Is she lying?” One of the guards asks.

 

“No.” He answers. 

 

“Where is he?” The woman on the ground asks. “What happened? How do you know him?”

 

“I was assigned to guard him while he was staying here before the Process began, so we talked a bunch! And, uh,” The woman's gaze is like fire, burning into Mercy. She continues quickly,  “We had this plan, to get him out. I had this plan, I mean.  After I had to leave he left and he took my shoe that I left with him and he was supposed to break the window, which I guess he did, and then he was supposed to get a ride with the janitor that came to clean it up and he was supposed to meet me here then I was going to get him out to the Starbucks and then he was going to call you or something. Honest.”

 

The man looks at Mercy like he did before and nods. “She’s not lying.”

 

Mercy relaxes. 

 

“Take her,” The woman grabs the mimic and pushes her gently towards Mercy. “Across the street, there should be some vans. One of them, at least, is blue. Virginia license plate. Red cross bumper sticker. That’s a medic van. They know who she is. I’ll call our people to make sure they’re ready for you two.”

 

“Eliza, are you sure?” The man asks her.

 

“Yes.” Eliza answers.

 

Mercy nods. “I promise that I’ll do my best to get her there safely.”

  
“Is she lying?” Eliza asks.

 

Once again, the man answers, “No.”

  
“Good. Go, take her. Her name is Peggy. She’s my sister.”

  
Mercy stands, and with Eliza and the man’s help, she’s got Peggy in her arms. Mercy goes to walk away, when Eliza stops her.

 

“Wait! How old are you?” She asks.

 

Confused, Mercy answers. “Sixteen. Why?”

  
Eliza looks like she’s almost ready to start crying again. “Nothing, nothing. Get her out of here safely.”

 

“Yes ma’am.”

  
This time, Eliza lets her go. 

 

Peggy isn’t very heavy, and Mercy isn’t very weak. Walking down the stairs while carrying her is hard, though, and Mercy contemplates dropping her and dragging her, but that wouldn’t be helping her. She does make it to the bottom of the staircase without Peggy hitting anything, so that’s a bonus. 

 

Unfortunately, a car had arrived, carrying three people back from a mission. Mercy recognized them a little from whenever they cross paths in the hallways. She isn’t quite sure, but she thinks that she might have been on a mission with one of them.

 

“Hey, what are you doing?” One of them calls.

 

“Nothing.”

  
“Who is that?” Another asks.

 

“No one.”

  
They glare at her.

 

“Doesn’t look like ‘nothing’ or ‘nobody’.”

 

Mercy sighs, before setting Peggy on the ground as gently as she can.

 

She spreads her arms out before slamming them together, sending out a ray of light meant to stun them. To her, it appears yellow. She’s not sure what it looks like to others. 

 

The man that she targeted falls hard. One down, two to go.

 

“Hey!” One of his partners, a woman, shouts. She jumps into the air, hovering above Mercy’s head. Mercy sends another beam out, this time at her. 

  
She falls. When she hits the ground, she starts to bleed. Mercy wonders if she needs to change her 47 into a 48, or if that will happen later, with Peggy.

 

The third man comes at her. He isn’t trying to cast anything and Mercy hopes that he doesn’t have powers at all.

 

Mercy sends out an orange beam at him, one to push him away from her.  He dodges it, so she sends another, a mixed with a beam meant to wrap around him and thrown him far from her.

 

It works! Except it doesn’t hit him until he hits her, and Mercy staggers backwards, putting a hand against her stomach where he hit her. It burns. 

 

He’s crumpled on the ground below the far wall,  and her hand is covered in blood. Mercy swears. He must have had something come out of his fingertips to stab her. 

 

She doesn’t know how much damage he did. Mercy hopes that he didn’t have any positioning powers, or else she’d be completely screwed. And dead.

 

It’s a lot more difficult to pick Peggy up the second time. She resorts to putting one of Peggy’s arms around her shoulders and holding her tight to her side.

 

It would work a lot better if Peggy was conscious, she thinks. 

 

They reach the door with no more attackers, which is good. Mercy thinks that she would either cry or die if more people came rushing at them.

 

Probably both, honestly.

 

Mercy pushes the door open and stumbles out onto the street. Even though there’s some people, nobody's staring at them.

 

What had Eliza said? Blue van with a Virginia plate? Mercy scans the street and sees that there’s one parked right next to them. People are already rushing out to meet them.

 

“Eliza sent..?” She asks.

 

“Yes, Eliza sent us.” One person says as they take Peggy from her arms. 

 

“I’m bleeding…” Mercy grabs her stomach with one hand and reaches out to the people with her other. “Take me too? Please?”

  
One of the medics sees how much blood is over Mercy’s stomach and swears. “Holy shit. Okay, yeah.”

  
Two people carry her carefully into the van. They put her gently beside Peggy. Mercy feels the van start to move below her.

 

People are starting to work on Mercy’s stomach and on Peggy and she is relieved. She did what she promised, after all.

 

She always tried to keep her promises. 

 

“Hey, hey, what’s your name?” One of the medics is by her head.

 

“Mercy,” she says. “Mercy.”

 

She always tried to keep her promises.

 

“Mercy, good. Stay with me, Mercy.”

  
“No,” she says. That would be promising something she couldn't guarantee.

 

She always tried to keep her promises. 

 

 

Herc is roughly three seconds away from saying ‘Screw it, John, take us home,’ and leaving the two other people he’s with alone. 

 

He’s cast out his invisibility to cover them, making it so only they could see each other. That doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want, though. They have to be completely silent, and not touch anything or anyone. 

 

They also have to pray that no one can detect powers, because an empty space that’s radiating like four people and change would definitely be noticeable.

 

When looking at them, Theo had described it like looking through a window into an empty room but knowing that something was there. Then she got frustrated and had shook her head, saying that it was hard to explain.

 

All of them had their mics on, so they could hear the other teams. Nothing really noticable had happened until Martha had made an announcement.

 

“Team JERL,” or Jasmine, Eliza, Rob, and Lafayette, “Has confirmed that Alexander is somewhere in the building. A girl, Mercy, told them and was confirmed to be truthful by Lafayette. She is no longer on site, after taking Peggy out to the Virgina Medic van. Virginia will be unavailable for at least the next half hour.”

 

John made a sound and was quickly and quietly shushed by Jordan. 

 

He was covered up, however, by the sound of a group nearing them from the other direction of the hallway. All four of them pressed themselves up against the wall, trying to take up the least amount of space as possible.

 

Samuel Seabury, leading a group of five people, entered the hallway. Grace pulled a pair of power-blocking handcuffs from her bag as quietly as she could, hoping to catch him.

 

It wasn’t quietly enough. All six stopped their walk and looked around.

 

“Someone’s here?” One of the six asked. He was the shortest and had bright red skin and eyes. Like a demon, Hercules thought. 

 

“Yes.” 

  
“No.”

  
“Yes!”

 

“No!”

  
“Would you two stop that!” Samuel said. The two arguing people shut up. “Annette, can you sense anything?”

  
Shit.

 

Annette, the woman Samuel had been talking to, straightened her shoulders and looked around the room. She looked straight at Hercules.

 

Hercules looked into her eyes. He shook his head and mouthed the word ‘Please’.

 

“...Annette?”

 

“No, sir.” She said. “I sense that someone unfamiliar to me has been here recently, however. Have we had anyone knew here?”

  
“No. Ugh!” Samuel ran his hands through his hair, shaking them through and messing it up. “Come on. Cameras are down and three people who were _supposed_ to be on patrol haven’t been seen by the people they were supposed to have been seen by! Come on! Someone is 

here!” He left, followed by everybody but Annette.

 

She waited until she was sure they were gone before speaking. “Your welcome.”

  
“Thank you?” Grace said slowly.

 

“If I am caught, I will most certainly be killed. But,” her lips curved into a smile. “If your little… revolution? Whatever you and your group are doing, if you succeed, well... I hope to have a place that is better than the cell I would be thrown in otherwise.”

 

“We can’t promise you anything,” Jordan warns.

 

“You can try. Have fun. Remember my help.” Annette left them, going in the direction the others had gone.

 

“That was fucking weird.” John said after a moment. 

 

“It was,” Grace agrees. “But if we don’t keep moving we’re going to get caught. Let’s go.”   
  


 

 

After he broke the window with Mercy’s shoe, Alex had hidden in a closet. It was exactly where Mercy had said it was, and it was unlocked. He hadn’t run into anyone on the way, though he had gotten awful close.

 

There was an announcement calling for a janitor. Alex waited until the janitor showed up and had cleaned up the glass before opening the closet door slightly and sticking his head out. 

 

“Hey,” he whispered. The janitor turned around, took one look at him, and shook his head. 

 

“She’s actually followed through.” He sounded a little amazed and very tired at the same time.

 

“Mercy sent me,” Alex showed him the shoe. “She wants you to help me, to take me to the main entrance. She said she doesn’t want a 47 to become a 48.”

 

The janitor shook his head. “Kid, I’ve got a lot of faith in Mercy, but…” He trailed off.

 

“Please! You have to!”

 

The janitor checked his watch. “It’s five twenty six. I’ll carry you as far as I can in my cart, but I’m dropping you at five twenty nine. I don’t want to be anywhere near King’s wrath.”

  
“Fine, fine, that’s fair. Let’s go, then.” 

 

Alex left the closet and got under the large basket the was part of the janitor’s cart. The janitor covered Alex with towels until he couldn’t be seen from any directions. 

 

They started to move. The janitor was clearly nervous, and Alex hoped that wouldn’t get them caught. They turned a corner, and the janitor stopped.

 

“Hello, Mr. Seabury.”

 

“Hello, Evan.” A man said. Alex couldn’t recognize the voice but he was sure it belonged to Samuel Seabury.

 

“Annette, anything suspicious about this man?”

  
“What, are you guys doing checks now?”

  
“As you should know, Evan, as the cameras have been down for three days. We just want to make sure there’s nothing wrong. Oh, but we can’t stay. I need to meet King to prepare for the Ritual.” Seabury sounded very pleased. “Annette?”

  
“I can’t sense anything out of the ordinary.” 

  
“Great. We’ll be going, now.”

 

“Goodbye, sirs, ma’am.”

  
“Bye, Evan!” A cheerful female voice said. “See you around!” It matched the voice of the person who said that she couldn’t sense anything wrong. Annette? Maybe.

The cart began to move again, faster this time. After maybe a minute or two the janitor, Evan, stopped. He bent down to speak to Alex.

 

“Kid, it’s time for you to get out.”

  
“It’s time?”

 

“It’s time.”

 

Alex quickly rolled out from his hiding spot. “Where do I need to go?”

  
“To get to the main entrance? Take a left, another left, a right, then go straight. Go down the stairs, you’ll see it. Be careful of the person at the front desk though.”

 

“It’ll be a friendly face.”

 

Evan sighed. “Dammit, Mercy. No offence, but I hope I never see you again.”

  
“None taken. Bye,” Alex said, but Evan was already leaving. 

 

Alex started to run, before hearing voices. He opened the first door he found and ducked inside.

 

 

Maria didn’t want to say anything, but God, Kirsten (one of her team members) was a bitch. She was also talking way too loud.

 

Luckily, she didn’t need to say anything. Anastasia slapped Kirsten’s arm and shushed her. Kirsten didn’t say anything in return but made a face. Brian sighed at both of them.

 

“Come on,” he said. “We have to go up a flight of stairs to get to our area. Nearest one is up ahead.”

 

They made it to the stairs easily enough, but the real trouble started when they were on the floor they wanted to be.

 

Another announcement came on, this one much louder and angry than the last one.

 

“WHERE IS HE?!”

 

It wasn’t the calm and collected voice of the previous announcer. This one was a British-sounding man.

 

“HOW COULD HE ESCAPE? FIND HIM! FIND HIM! FIND-” The man let out a slow breath. “Mercy. FIND MERCY! FIND HIM! FIND HER! BRING HIM TO ME! BRING HIM BACK! FIND HER! BRING THEM BOTH BACK!”

  
The announcement cut off.

 

“Didn't Martha say something about Alex being found and a girl named Mercy?”

 

“She did.”

  
“Did she say anything about him being rescued?”

  
“Not yet.”

  
“We’ll have to get to him first, then.”

 

“Obviously.”

  
“Wait, guys, shush.” Brian waved at the two women. They all listened.

 

Footsteps. They could her footsteps. And before any of them could run and hide somewhere, the owners of the footsteps came around the corner.

 

“The hell?” An unfamiliar man and woman paused at the other end of the wide hallway they were.

 

“...We’re new.” Brian said after a moment.

 

The woman scoffed. “Doesn’t sound like it,”

 

Then she rushed at them.

 

“Wait!” Maria called, pushing her powers outward. The woman froze and the main just stared at her. 

  
“Yes?” The woman asked, a lot more relaxed.

 

Maria smiled and made her way to the woman, swaying her hips as she walked. The woman's eyes followed her movements.

 

It was too easy, really.

 

“You should take your friend and leave.”

 

“Of course! If that’s what you want!” The woman responded quickly.

  
“It is.” Maria practically purred. The woman nodded hard and grabbed the man’s arm, pulling him him. 

 

“What the hell?” The man ripped his arm away from the woman before turning to Maria. “I’m not going to let any of your seduction shit get us.” He pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot Maria in the knee. She screamed and fell.

 

Anastasia ran at him, faster than a normal human could run, and grabbed him, before starting to run again. She dragged him out of sight.

 

Brian knelt next to Maria. “Shit, shit, shit. Fuck. Okay. Let me see what I can do.” Before Maria could ask  _ what  _ he could do, Brian put his hands over her knee. Maria could feel the bullet coming back out, but it didn’t hurt. Instead, she was filled with a cool, calm feeling. Brian pulled a bandaged from his bag and wrapped it around Maria’s knee. He pocketed the bullet.

 

“How’re you feeling?”

 

“Good, good. No,” she corrected. “Not quite good. But better.”

  
“Good. You should be able to keep going for the next couple hours, but we’re going to need to get a more permanent solution later. That good?”

  
“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. Where’s Anastasia?”

  
Kirsten looked around the corner. “She’s coming back.”

  
“You guys ready to keep moving?” Anastasia was breathing hard. “‘Cause I sure am.”

 

Maria stood with help from Brian and Kirsten. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  
They went.

 

 

Theo and Aaron had taken the top floor. It hadn’t been that hard. They had climbed the building right next to the base and Cole had made a bridge.

 

Cole’s powers were strange. Sometimes, when Theo looked at him, instead of seeing a human, she saw a curled up tree. When he used his powers, she saw both the branches unfurling from his fingertips and a tree, stretching out wide.

 

It was a little disorienting sometimes.

 

They cleared the roof quickly, finding only one person. They cuffed him easily after a quick fight. Cole wrapped his branches around him and stretched them down to the ground below them, into the ready arms of some of the people staying outside.

 

The next floor was more difficult. There had been an announcement practically as soon as they had opened the roof door, about Alex being missing because of Mercy.

 

The floor was alive with activity. Lights were flashing and people were hurrying by so fast that most of them didn’t even notice Theo and her team descending. The ones who did just seemed to shrug it off. 

 

Then there was another announcement and the lights went back to normal.

 

“We have found him! I repeat, Alexander, our rouge captive, has been found. Please, return to your normal activities. Keep in mind that if you see our dear Mercy she should be sent to me immediately! It appears that we cannot trust those we take in. We will have to review all of you, to see where your allegiances really lie, but all in due time. Once again, we have found him. The Process will begin as per schedule, so if you are involved with the Ritual, please join us.  For everyone else, please return to your normal activities. Thank you!”

  
Theo and Aaron exchanged a wide eyed look. This was not good for any of them.

 

Tristen hesitated for a second before pulling all four of them into a tight hug and shrinking them down to about two inches tall.  Theo, Aaron, and Cole all stumbled a little when they started walking, but Tristen guided them to an area under an end table in the corner of the room where they wouldn’t be easily seen.

 

“We’re going to wait,” he whispered. “Until we can-” Tristen was cut off by the sound off people, filling the empty hallway.

 

At the head of the group there was a tall thin man. Standing a step behind him were two other men, both dragging someone between them.

 

Theo gasped then pressed her hands against her mouth. It was Alex.

 

 

Alex thrashed against the two men’s hold on him, but it was no use. He had been doing just  _ fine,  _ he thought bitterly. He was so close to getting out.

 

“Oh, stop that fighting, Alexander. It is useless. Besides, you’ll tire yourself out, and what use would you be to me then? I need there to be strength in you, Alexander!” King had turned to see where the noise was coming from.

 

Alex growled at King. King laughed.

 

King was close enough, and Alex had no other options… He leaned forward as far as he could and bit King.

 

King let out a little shriek and hoped back. “Hey, now! We are adults! God, Americans have no manners.”

 

“It’s not because I’m American, it’s because you’ve literally kidnapped me, you nasty f-”

 

Someone covered Alex’s mouth with their hand. He bit them. They too jumped back.

 

King rolled his eyes. “Ugh. We’re almost there, and there is no need for such profanity. Marcus, dear, would you mind casting out some silence towards Alexander?”

 

Alex couldn’t see whoever Marcus was, but he was clearly hesitating.

 

“Uh, sir? I understand your order, but… It’ll hurt?”

  
“It’s not too far. And it will be less of a distance if you stop complaining.”

 

Marcus started to whimper from pain. Alex tried to speak, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t make any sound at all. 

 

“Perfect. Now, Greg, you might need to carry Marcus. He doesn’t look so good.” 

 

Someone behind Alex picked up Marcus. “Alright! Let us go forward! It’s time for the very delayed ritual. I absolutely should not be made to wait half an hour, Alexander.”

 

They kept moving, now towards certain death. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me what you guys thought about this extra rad chapter! i read every comment!


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We return to Alex!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey!!
> 
> okay first WARNING i guess: there's some stuff in this chapter where a character cuts something into another characters skin
> 
> anyway we are nearing the end of this story! I'm not going to give the whole 'this is the end' speech YET but i'm warning you guys that it's coming up! as far as I know, there's going to be about 23 chapters total, though I want to do more in this verse!

 

King and his group pushed Alex down into a chair and strapped his arms onto the sides with thick bands of what felt like leather.

 

Alex resisted, but they were strong. While he was fighting, or at least trying to, one of King’s people had grabbed a chair and pulled it up for him. King sat down directly in front of Alex, and he smiled at him.

 

“What?” Alex snapped. 

 

“Nothing and everything! Now, Mercy was instructed to inform you about this Process. You should know what we’re going to do. Now, step one.” King said, then waited.

 

What? Mercy hadn’t said anything about single steps.

 

“Don’t you know what you’re doing?” King asked.

 

“No.”

 

King shook his head. “Agh. Worthless child, that Mercy. Now, I suppose I will have to do this. We start with this. William?”

  
A man standing directly behind King handed him a glass vial, about as long as a pencil and maybe a quarter or half-dollar thick. Inside was a gloopy-looking mix of something reddish-brownish.

 

“This,” King swirled the vial in his hand. “Is the first step of this procedure. We’re going to put this on your arm.” King leaned forward, and with one hand he rolled the Alex’s left sleeve up so that it was over his shoulder.  Then he opened the top of the vial, and held it under Alex’s nose.

 

He couldn’t help but smell it. It smelled like copper and raw egg. Alex coughed. 

  
“What _is_ that?”

  
“Blood from an immortal that’s around one hundred thirty years old. The immortal, that is, not the blood, but it still counts. Counts for what, you might ask?”

 

Alex hadn't asked.

 

“It counts for the recipe!” King continued, not even waiting for Alex to ask.  “The recipe called for something that could be turned into a liquid and was over a hundred years old, and we are  _ not _ going to liquify a corpse or a coin or something of that sort.”

  
Alex didn’t have anything to say to that. He had noticed that when King talked, he didn’t really leave space for anyone else.

 

“And, well, you must have heard of the wedding tradition of something old, something new? Imagine this as that! The blood is the old, and the egg is the new! The recipe required it to be a week -or younger, I suppose- old. And, well, this was the easiest.”

 

King capped the vial again. He turned to the person behind him and held out his hand, and they handed him a knife.

 

“This knife, now, this knife is interesting. This knife was made by magic, or powers, or whatever you people call them. Some people are able to make physical objects with their magic, have you noticed? Twelve of them made this knife. The recipe was very specific about that. Of twelve people.”

  
King turned it over in his hands and Alex was able to get a good look at it. The blade was long and smooth, curved at the end. The blade was beige colored, but the handle of the knife was multi-colored and very reflective. The colors reminded Alex of a pool of oil in a parking lot. 

 

King held his hand out again and someone else put a piece of paper in his hands. He showed Alex the design on it.

 

It had a rhombus with an ‘X’ over it and a square surrounding the entire thing. Alex didn’t know why, but he felt a cold shiver run down his spine like fingers trailing down his back. 

 

“We’re going to carve this into your skin,” King said cheerfully. “And pour the mixture over it. We can discuss what’s next after that. Robert? Give me your strength.” 

  
A man stepped next to King, and King shaked a little in his chair, rolling his shoulders and head, almost like what Peggy did when she mimicked someone’s look. He smiled.

 

“Thank you, Robert. Marcus?”

  
“Yes, sir?” Marcus, the man who had silenced Alex before looked up from where he was sitting. He looked pale, like a washed-out version of himself.

 

“Silence the room.”

  
“Everyone?”

  
“Everyone. Myself and Alexander included. And you, of course.”

  
“Of.. of course, sir.”

  
Then he was shaking, and it looked he was screaming, but Alex couldn’t hear anything but the sound of him moving in his chair.

 

King smiled again, wide and thin, before leaning forward with the knife. 

 

It felt like it was burning him as it sliced into his skin. King carved the pattern slowly and neatly, making sure to cut the lines exactly as the pattern dictated. Alex writhed in the chair, pushing against the straps, but he was held back. He tried to scream, and he felt the scream ripping the inside of his throat, but he didn’t make a sound.

 

Alex felt like he would faint the entire time as he watched his own blood roll over his skin, and drip onto the chair and the tile floor below him.

 

Then King dropped the knife onto the ground, picking up the vial again and uncapping it. He leaned forward and poured it onto the bloody pattern in Alex’s flesh.

 

Then the pattern blew up.

 

It wasn’t fire that was rolling out of the pattern on Alex’s arm. Alex didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a liquid or a solid or a gas.

 

It was constantly shifting as it filled the room, black smoke rising from it.  Alex couldn’t hear anything but startled running and skin hitting skin and people falling onto the ground.

 

Then everyone started making noise again, and it was horrific.

 

They were screaming.

 

They were dying.

 

Then the mass of- something, he didn’t know what it was exactly- had disappeared, going through the walls. Alex could hear the building shaking, even if nothing seemed to be falling in. He could hear the screams from outside the room as well, even through the walls. 

 

Alex looked around the room. In the chair in front of him, where King had been sitting, was a pile of ash. There were bodies on the ground around them, but Alex wasn’t sure if they were dead. Some of them were still moving and shaking.

 

Not all of them, though.

 

Alex tried to stand, but quickly realized that his arms were somehow still bound to the chair. He sighed and leaned back into the chair, closing his eyes tight.

 

All he could do was wait, for either death or rescue.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what'd you guys think? tell me!   
> (also, did y'all notice that I, literally five minutes ago, updated my profile pic into something less cringy, i think)


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex is rescued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey hey!  
> i legit just edited this so if there's any mistakes PLEASE TELL ME!   
> anyway, happy pride month!   
> enjoy this chapter!

The explosion was gigantic, something never before seen or documented. It had over a thirty-mile radius, covering some of New York City and little parts of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and of course, New Jersey, its origin.

In roughly a ten mile radius, seventeen power mimics died, and in the entire blast area, many more were seriously injured.

Of the seventeen, three were near people who could measure the amounts of magic radiating off of someone. All three reported that the power mimics suddenly became ‘brighter and brighter, like looking at the sun’ while screaming 'like they were being burned from the inside' before they died. All three also suffered injuries, but none of them died.

Locations everywhere within the blast zone suffered damages ranging from very little to extremely severe. All the buildings had something in common, however- They all had parts made from magic.

Power mimics and buildings were not the only things that got hurt. Mimics of all types were injured, with some dying.

 

But before that, there was Aaron, Theo, and their teammates and friends, Cole and Tristen. After King and Alex had left, Tristen made them all grow back to their correct size.

Before the blast, Aaron had felt strange. He had stared at Theo, wide-eyed.

“Do you feel that, in the air?”

She had nodded.

Nervously, Aaron had cast out, damping all magic whatsoever in a circle around them. 

“That bad?” Cole asked.

“Yeah. It just feels… wrong. I don’t know, it doesn’t exactly make sense.”

Then there was screaming, suddenly, and a wave of something came crashing through. It parted around the circle Aaron had made, its reddish gray waves flowing beside them.It shook the entire building, the screams spreading out as the wave went on.

Theo, Cole, and Tristen all stepped closer to Aaron.

“We need to get Alex,” Theo said, talking Aaron’s hand. “We’re not leaving without him.”

“You crazy? The.. whatever that was came from where they took him. We’d die, Theo.” Tristen spoke quickly.

“You’re suggesting we leave Alex, a defenseless civilian? Honestly, you’re actually disgusting me, Tristen.” Theo snapped back. “I’m going, Aaron’s going..?”

Aaron nodded quickly. “Obviously.”

“I’m going too. Tristen, you better go back to base. Tell them what we’re doing. Alright?” Cole spoke up as well, directing Tristen.

Tristen sighed. “Alright. I’m going.” He ran off, outside of Aaron’s bubble of safety. They all watched him go carefully. Nothing bad happened to him.

They turned their attention back to the hallway that King had taken Alex down and together, they walked.

The halls were abandoned. The screaming had mostly stopped, but not completely. 

“Which door?” Aaron asked when they had reached the end of the hallway. They faced two identical doors. 

Theo scanned the two briefly before pointing to the door on the right. “This one. Inside it’s radiating… something. Can’t tell what. Something big. And something very, very big has left residue here. I think that this is where the… whatever that was started.”

Cole put his hand out to turn the doorknob. 

“It’s not locked,” he noticed. “We going in?”

Theo and Aaron nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They opened the door. As they stepped inside, Cole unfurled the branches from his fingers, prepared to attack something.

There were bodies, slumped over on the floor, and one in a chair. 

“Alex!” Aaron gasped. He ran forward, falling to his knees in front of the chair. Alex was securely strapped in. “Holy fuck,” he heard Cole say from the other end of the room as he inspected a body. 

Alex looked up. “Aaron?” He whispered. His eyes looked wrong. Alex’s pupils were huge, and instead of their normal violet-blue, they were yellowish. Aaron decided to ignore it, instead focusing on the burnt skin on Alex’s arm.

Theo had been undoing the straps on Alex’s arms while Aaron had been inspecting Alex. She pulled the straps off completely and he stood, shaking. He touched the large burnt spot before quickly taking his hand away.

Aaron stepped forward to get on one side of Alex. Alex put one of his arms around Aaron’s shoulders and Aaron put his arm around Alex’s waist, supporting most of his weight. 

Theo ran to be on Alex’s other side so Aaron wasn’t carrying him alone. 

“Cole!” She shouted. “Get in front. Defense. Get your branches out, we’re going home.”

“Got it.” Cole stepped in front of them.

The group had made it down a flight of stairs before running into another walking person.

Samuel Seabury.

Samuel was stumbling, holding his limp left arm with his right one.

“Please,” Samuel stumbled towards Cole. “A part of a wall fell on my arm and my team is dead. Let me go with you, let me repent. Please!”

Theo exchanged a look with Aaron before nodding at Cole. “Take him,” she said. “We’ll deal with him back at base, but we’re not leaving him to die. That’s not our thing,” she looked at Alex’s mostly limp form in her and Aaron’s arms before looking away again.

 

Cole stretched out some of his branches to wrap around Samuel’s good arm. 

“If you try anything,” he warned, leaving the threat open-ended.

“I know, I know. I won’t.” Samuel promised.

They had made it down another flight before finding someone else. A janitor with his cart, hiding behind it.

“He alive?” Theo asked.

“I am!” The man stumbled out, pushing the cart away. “Please, I need help.”

Alex looked up. His head had been slumped down, even when Samuel had been talking. His eyes lit up with recolonization.

“He’s good,” he whispered. “He helped me.”

Aaron nodded at the man. “Come with us. You hurt?”

The man joined their group. “No, thank God. Figured I’d be defenseless without powers, but,” he looked at an unmoving body slumped over on the ground. “Look’s like I did better than those with them.”

“Look’s like it.” Theo agreed.

Another floor down, they found another familiar face.

“Maria?” Aaron asked.

She was laying on the ground, her knee covered in blood.

Theo left Alex’s side, leaving Aaron to support him completely as she knelt by Maria. Theo tapped Maria gently.

Maria groaned.

“Oh, thank God, she’s alive.” 

Maria groaned again as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. 

“Hey, hey, be careful. What happened?”

“Got shot in the leg,” Maria pointed to it. “I was fine, Brian healed me. But the blast, it felt like I got shot again.”

“Where’s your team?” Aaron asked.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know. There was smoke, we got separated…” Maria trailed off. “I can’t stand up.”

“Shit,” Theo swore. She was already helping Aaron carry Alex, and Cole had Samuel and the role of protecting the entire group.

Evan stepped forward. “I can carry you,” he offered.

Maria stretched out her arms towards him. “Just get me out of here.”

Evan picked up Maria and they continued on.

They made it to the main entrance without running into anyone else.

 

Before the blast, Angelica had heard Eliza’s announcement about Peggy and had rushed towards the medical wing of the NYCSMP. She arrived before the van carrying Peggy.

After Peggy arrived, they didn’t let her in, too busy trying to heal both Peggy and the other girl, Mercy.

Instead, she stayed in one of the waiting room’s chairs and sobbed. 

“The blast definitely worsened Peggy’s condition.” A medic reported to her. “And we’re still unsure of the extent of the damage already done by her attacker.”

“Yes, but… how is she? Can I see her? Please?”

“She hasn’t woken up yet. I’m sorry, Angelica, but it doesn’t look very good for her. We’ll come get you when you’re able to see her.”

Angelica had waited until the medic had left her before sliding off the chair and sitting on the ground. She rested her head against her knees and wrapped her arms around her body as she bawled. 

After reporting that they had found him, Theo and Aaron had dropped Alex and Maria off with some medics. They took Evan and Samuel to the holding cells, where Samuel’s arm was attended to. 

They then joined Angelica in the waiting room, where most of their friends were gathering. John, Hercules, and Lafayette were already there by the time Aaron and Theo made it. The other people who had went with them had gone off to rest and be healed, as well as make their initial reports on what had happened.

Peggy, Alex, Maria, and Mercy still were being healed when Eliza arrived. She had been separated from Lafayette shortly before the blast.

Eliza looked around the room nervously. “Are they still..?” She trailed off.

“Being worked on?” Hercules supplied. 

Eliza nodded. “Yeah, that.”

“They are.”

Eliza went to sit on the floor next to Angelica. She wrapped her arms around Angelica, holding her tightly.

They sat in silence, no one else making a move to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what'd you guys think? and again, tell me if there's any mistakes i missed while editing!


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the very last one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyheyhey  
> AHHHHHHHHHHHHOHMYGODDDDD  
> this is the last chapter guys! i'll talk more in the end note!  
> enjoy!
> 
> [EDIT: I think i fixed my tumblr link?? https://treepengui.tumblr.com/ this should work]

Surprisingly, Peggy lived. Of the medical team working on her at the NYCSMP, twelve out of fourteen of them secretly suspected she was going to die.

Not that they told her sisters, of course.

Maria was the first to get out of the medical wing, after only spending a night. She didn’t recover immediately, however. She couldn’t walk right away. It took about five weeks before Maria put weight on her knee again, even with magical healing. She had to quit her job because of how much time she had missed. The NYCSMP and Martha helped her as much as Maria was willing, but Maria was stubborn. She didn’t want them to buy her an apartment or pay rent for her current one.

After she lost her apartment she did relented, and moved in with the Schuyler Sisters, as they had an extra room. Maria sold her extra furniture, even though the Schuyler’s had told her she didn’t have to. But she felt relieved selling it. It was a weight lifted off her shoulders.

When Philip and Catherine Schuyler heard the news, they had rushed to the NYCSMP. They stayed with Angelica and Eliza at Peggy’s side. 

While all of their friends visited Maria and Alex, Eliza alternated between the three of them the most, making sure to see each of them at least once a day. 

 

Mercy was next to recover. Once she was out of the medical wing, there was the whole ‘What do we do with this child’ situation. Because even after all that she had gone through, Mercy was still a child. 

“Mercy?” Martha had asked. She, Washington, and Eliza were in Martha’s office. Eliza had wanted something to do while they waited for everyone to recover and was put to work helping Martha and George with Mercy’s situation.

“Yes?” Mercy sat up straighter in her chair.

“We’ve found your Aunt.”

Mercy leaned back again. As they had found out, her mother had died, so there was no going back to her. And Mercy still hated her Aunt. 

“And?” She asked. Mercy only asked because she knew it was expected of her. She didn’t care.

“She died of lung cancer two years ago.”

“Good riddance.” Mercy scoffed. “Oh!” She sat up straighter again. “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Mercy.” Eliza sighed. Mercy was very apologetic most of the time. There was definitely going to be some long-lasting damage from Mercy’s years at King’s base.

“Was she a smoker when you knew her?” Washington asked.

“She smoked long before I was born, sir.” 

“Ah.”

“As George and I have fostered children before, we were wondering if you would mind living with us until we got your situation under control.”

“Like as my guardians or something?”

“Kind of. We wouldn’t adopt you, unless after some time staying with us you decided that you’d want to be.”

“Oh.” She thought about it for a moment. “Would I get to go to school?” Even before she had lived at King’s base, Mercy had loved school. While living there, she had studied as much as she could but it wasn’t anything close to actual school. Mercy missed it.

“Of course!” Martha said quickly. “But only after you spend some time adjusting back to life outside. It wouldn’t be healthy to just throw you back in.”

“Sure, sure. Yeah, that sounds good.” Even if she hated waiting, it was better then nothing. “Let’s do it.”

 

But before that, there was John, sitting in Alex’s room. He had been moved from the intensive care wing to the recovery wing and was healing.

His arm still had the scars, though. The medics had tried, but they weren’t able to erase them at all. They had actually made them worse. The scar stood out black against his tan skin.

And Alex’s eyes still weren’t back to normal. 

Multiple people were running tests on him, trying to see what had caused what had happened. 

All they knew was that there was something. Theo, especially, was frustrated. She had thought for a while that there wasn’t just nothing. But even after all that had happened, all they could say was still ‘There’s something’.

It was dark outside, though John didn’t know what time it was exactly. Probably midnight, he thought. Everything happened at midnight.

It was dark inside, too. Eliza had switched the light off when she left, telling John that he should rest.

He hadn’t gotten a full night of sleep in a while. The worry for his boyfriend (and his worry for the world’s future in general) would keep him up for hours.

Alex’s room was pretty nice, for a hospital. The window was slightly open, letting the wind ruffle the light blue curtains. There wasn’t a carpet, but the tile was smooth and glassy beige colored. It looked nice.

Alex’s bed had soft white and blue sheets. They were nice for when Alex was asleep and when John was slumped over, his face down against the blankets. 

John ran a finger over his nails. Eliza had painted them for him, one hand solid orange like before and the other stripes, alternating between green, yellow, red, and sparkly blue. The colors didn’t really go together, but Eliza made it work.

“Why those colors?” John had asked.

“Because it symbolizes you guys. The orange is obvious, that’s you. Yellow is Peg, green’s Alex, red is Maria, and the blue is Mercy since I don’t know what color she’d be.”

John looked at his nails. He could only really see the sparkly blue because of how little light there was. 

“...John?”

John looked up to see that Alex had woken up.

“Hey. How’re you feeling?”

“My throat's dry as fuck. How long have I been asleep?”

“I’m not sure. A while, though. At least ten hours.”

“Jesus.” Alex rubbed his eyes with one hand. His scarred arm was wrapped in bandages and was stiff, so generally, he only used his good arm. “That’s waaaaaay too long.”

“You need the sleep, dude.”

“I know, I know,” Alex spoke quickly, waving his hand. “Hey, if you’re not literally about to fall asleep, can you turn on the light?”

“Yeah, sure.” John stood up and stretched before crossing the room and flipping the light switch.

Alex winced at the light but didn’t protest.

“How’re you doing?”

“You asked me that already, John.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

There was a lull in the conversation where John was burning to say something but just couldn’t find the words.

“How are you, John? You haven’t been talking much about yourself.”

“I’m… okay. That whole mission thing was fucking weird. And there’s still so many unsolved mysteries, you know?”

“Like where King came from?”

“Yeah, and how he got the money. And it’s just, I don’t know. Where’d all those people come from? How’d they get recruited? What happened to the ones we didn’t find? Did they die, or run away?”

“And what happened to me?”

“Yeah.”

“...Can you sit next to me?”

“Sure.”

John stood up from his chair next to Alex’s bed and climbed onto it, laying down next to Alex. 

“King was vaporized by that thing, right?”

“Yeah.”

John wrapped an arm around Alex, taking care not to hit or bump into his bad arm.

“But, I mean, there’s the future, yeah? We’ve got a whole future ahead of us.” Alex said, leaning into John. 

“We’ve got so much,” John agreed. “So much to do and see and be.”

“And we’re gonna be okay.”

“We’re gonna be okay.”

They fell asleep like that, with the lights on. John was still laying over the covers and in his jeans. But that didn’t matter.

They were going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is it. the very last chapter of this story.  
> will i make more in this verse, you ask?  
> YES!! Just maybe not soon. I'm still in school, so there's end of year tests and all that jazz.  
> I made a tumblr though! https://treepengui.tumblr.com/ I'm treepengui! I don't know how to use it yet, so please bear with me, but I'm trying! Please, shoot me an ask! 
> 
> For everyone who's been here since the beginning, thank you. For those who haven't, thank you. For those who found this fic today, thought it looked cool, and binged it, thank you. Thank you guys for reading this and encouraging me. I've never actually finished a story here before (excluding like one one shot) so getting through this means a lot to me. And it's the longest thing I've ever written by about 7,000 words!! that's a lot!!!
> 
> Speaking of a lot, so many of you guys gave this fic kudos and comments! Thank you! I loved seeing new comments and kudos on this, it really helped me keep going with this fic. 
> 
> I know a bunch of you might not read this, so hERE'S SOME RAD STATS ON THIS STORY I WANTED TO SHARE:
> 
> -the word 'shit' was said 27 times (thanks control f)  
> -fuck was only said 9 times  
> -damn was said just 5 times  
> -of the Schuyler sisters, Angelica was mentioned the most (Angelica having 260 named mentions, Eliza 243, and Peggy 247)  
> -of Alex, Herc, Laf, and John, Alex was mentioned the most (Alex having 355, Herc having 79, Laf having 75, and John having 228)  
> -Mercy was mentioned 121 times (sorry herc and laf!)  
> -the word 'bucket' was never said in this fic  
> -Theo was mentioned 159 times!  
> -because of how i wrote aaron burr, some people called him aaron and some called him burr, so i can't use the powers of control f to find his name mentions. sorry dude  
> -in my google doc, this fic is 141 words long  
> -I ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO KILL PEGGY  
> -AND MERCY  
> -all of my friends supported it, but i chickened out lol  
> -john and alex didn't get together in my original plan  
> -my story plan stopped at chapter 16  
> -martha wasn't in my original plan! but i added her and i think it's better with her
> 
> anyway, here's my tumblr link again, just cuz  
> https://treepengui.tumblr.com/  
> hope that link works! shoot me an ask!  
> and for the last time, thank you! i love all of you!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please tell me what you think!


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